I have a really hard time throwing things away. Don't misinterpret this as "I am a pack rat". I am probably the opposite of that. My "editing eye" is keen and my decluttering blade is swift, but I struggle with piles of crap going to the landfill. I struggle with the idea that I'm adding to the mountain.
We live in a world driven by stuff. We all have tons of it, don't think we have enough and then acquire more. Believe me, as a recovering shopaholic, I know this cycle. But as long as I can remember, I have struggled with throwing things into trash bins. I go out of my way to find someone who can either use or strip and recycle everything I must part with.
It becomes almost comical as I scour the internet looking for ways to delicately rid myself of unwanted, unused junk. Case in point? The infant carrier. When I got pregnant with Beringer I decided that we needed one of those cool sit/stand strollers from Baby Trend. I poured over craigslist until I found one, and jumped on it immediately. The only problem was that our car seat that we used with Urban, and would reuse with Beringer, was a Combi car seat that does not have the same fastening mechanism as a standard infant carrier. So, it wouldn't lock into place in the Baby Trend stroller. That's an easy solve. Time for more stuff! I just headed out to a garage sale and bought a new carrier for $10. It didn't matter to me that the car seat had "expired," I was not going to use it for anything but the stroller.
Flash forward to today as I'm trying to clean out for the big move, and I have this big old expired car seat sitting in the basement. I have rounded up every other baby item I owned and "donated" it to my girlfriend who is due in November, but this car seat is an issue. Off to the internet I go... But I'm not satisfied with the results of my search. Essentially, the Twin Cities guideline is cut off all the straps, render the thing unusable and stick it in a trash bag. For real? This is just not settling well with me.
Now, after some more searching I have found a place in Austin, TX, called Baby Earth, that will recycle car seats, all you have to do is ship it there. Um, yeah, so now I'm looking at spending $60-90 to ship my $10 car seat to place for recycling. What am I supposed to do? I don't know if I could live with myself thinking this bulk of metal and plastic is sitting in a landfill not rotting because I didn't want to spend the money to dispose of it properly.
Why do we put ourselves in these situations? How can we make things that are clearly necessary, and legally mandatory, but then say that 1) it can't be sold 2) it can't be donated 3) it can't be recycled? The thought of the shear number of car seats in use today boggles my mind. Where are all those seats going? The children grow up. The laws change. The silly things have EXPIRATION DATES!! So, then what? Will my grandchildren be skiing Mount Car Seat?
I am at a loss. I think I'm going to have to cough up the money and ship my car seat to TX for a final get away in the sun. I hope it enjoys its final trip. And I hope that it can be repurposed into something as useful as it was. Bon Voyage, Mr. Graco. It's been real.
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