Depending on whether your infant seat has been in an accident (even a very minor one!), you can dispose of infant seat in one of the following ways.

If your infant seat has been in an accident...

Your infant seat cannot be reused by you or anybody else.  You should simply put it out on the curbside for trash collection:

For the harness straps and paddings disposal:

• cut and remove all harness straps from the infant seat.
• remove all paddings from the infant seat.
• throw them out in a dark trash bag.

For the now bare, damaged infant seat disposal:

• use a permanent marker and write BIG on the bare infant seat - "TRASH - DO NOT REUSE".
• put the infant seat inside a dark trash bag so nobody can see the content inside.
• throw the infant seat away in another trash collection cycle, so that nobody can pick it up together with the cut-up straps and paddings.

If your infant seat has not been in an accident...

Your infant seat can be reused if it has not reached the expiration date and it is not in a recall.  Yes, there is an expiration date on a infant seat!  The reason is that even though the infant seat may look perfectly normal to the naked eye, it is made of plastic and it does get brittle and dangerous after the expiration date.  So it may not function properly in a collision/accident.  Please see "Why do infant seats expire?" for more information.

When giving away your infant seat, it is preferable to:

• give the infant seat to a younger sibling, another family member, or a very close friend.
• give your assurance that your infant seat has never been in an accident.
• provide the original owner's manual.