We're well into April, which means we're all well into spring cleaning season too. Spring cleaning is the reason for the season — it's an excuse to purge your closets, strip your home of things you haven't used in years, and exchange those items for improved ones. And you'll definitely want to spring clean ASAP, now that Target is giving a car seat discount to parents who recycle their older models — but be forewarned, the everything-store is only running the promotion for the rest of the month of April.   While you might be lugging that old car seat around to Target every week just to go shopping (hello, dollar section), you now have a reason to bring that same car seat to Target and walk out with a new one for an even more reasonable price tag. Beginning Monday, April 17 — just in time for Tax Day, thank you — and ending on April 30, parents can bring their old car seat into Target stores nationwide and get a discount in return. This is neither a drill nor a late April Fools' joke.   So how does it work, exactly? In exchange for their car seat, according to Scary Mommy, parents will get a 20 percent off coupon from the store, good to use on any car seat from Target until May 31. Because just when you couldn't find another reason to love the store enough, it pulls this amazing deal out of its hat. But this exchange isn't just Target's way of giving back to parents who've spent far too much time and money in their stores, likely chasing their toddlers at the same time (although it does seem like a nice act of customer appreciation) — it's Target and recycled product company TerraCycle's way of helping the planet, in honor of Earth Month. Through the exchange, according to Target, the department store plans on keeping more than 700,000 pounds of car seat materials out of landfills. Together, Target and TerraCycle will make sure that the car seats are recycled or turned into new car seats — saving the planet and your bank account, one seat at a time.   Target offers over 100 different models and styles of car seats, ranging in price from under 50 dollars to over 300 dollars. This deal can provide parents with the opportunity to upgrade their car seat or finally get their hands on the model they've been saving up for since before their baby's arrival. This is the first time that Target has offered this deal in stores all across the country.  Basically? Thank you, Target, for giving all parents a reason to love you even more than they do already.

One of the eye-opening things you quickly learn as a parent is how expensive child car seats are.   Spoiler alert for the childless: Car seats are super-expensive. Also, your growing child will cycle through various car seat stages. Take it from me, a father of two.   These days, the average convertible car seat price is roughly $175 — although it ranges from $75 to $400 or more, depending on your needs, taste and budget.   One way to save money here is to take advantage of car seat trade-ins. Babies R Us, Toys R Us and Target have these in-store events every once in a while.   Right now, it’s Target’s turn. Target is holding a nationwide car seat trade-in event April 17-30.   It’s basically a two-week window to bring in your old car seat and get a coupon for 20% off a new one, good through May 31.   Once or twice a year, Toys R Us and Babies R Us do the same thing, usually offering a 25% discount. This usually happens near the beginning of the year.   The Car Seat Cycle of Life   These car seat trade-ins are especially useful because at some point, your child will outgrow their current car seat, or it’ll expire.   The federal government offers car seat guidelines based on your child’s age and weight. Here are some useful guidelines:   Infant seats: Newborn to 2 years, or 30-plus pounds. All-in-one seats: Newborn to 12 years, or 120 pounds. Convertible seats: Newborn to 6 years, or 65 pounds. Booster seats: 6-12 years or 120 pounds. What happens to the car seats that Target collects? It’s teaming up with recycling company TerraCycle to have them recycled into new products. They expect to keep 700,000 pounds of car seat materials out of landfills.   Consumer Reports has good tips on when to trade in your car seat:   When your baby is a year old. When your baby gets too big for their infant seat. It’s simply time for the next step. When your car seat expires. Yes, car seats have expiration dates. Check your car seat’s manufacturing label. They’re typically good for six years. After that, you can’t resell them on Craigslist or at a consignment store. Your Turn: Have you ever traded in a car seat?

Did a waste audit reveal your company’s recycling program isn’t exactly where you want it to be? Don’t be discouraged. Most companies hit pitfalls along the way, but those that stick with it can emerge as industry leaders. Take Procter and Gamble (P&G) and Microsoft, for example, which lead the consumer packaged goods and electronics industries in recycling. Procter and Gamble (P&G) set a goal to send zero manufacturing waste to landfill by 2020. So far, 56 percent of its global production sites send zero manufacturing waste to local landfills. Although it has less than three years left, the company is optimistic it can meet its 2020 goal — an achievement P&G says will keep about 65,000 metric tons of waste out of landfills. That is equivalent to the weight of almost 350,000 mid-sized cars. Manufacturing waste makes up about 95 percent of the waste P&G produces, with the remainder coming from its offices and tech center programs. The company works toward its 2020 goal by looking at waste through a new lens. As it states on its website: “The key is to not see anything as trash, but material with potential use.” Part of a successful recycling program is to reuse waste whenever possible. P&G offers a number of examples of reusing waste across its supply chain, including in Hungary where employees collect production scraps and send them to a local cement company that incinerates them to make energy for bricks. How a partnership can help a company Sometimes a company needs to partner with key recycling industry leaders to overcome plateaus and achieve their goals. P&G recently partnered with TerraCycle and SUEZ to produce a shampoo bottle made from up to 25 percent recycled beach plastic. The bottle of Head and Shoulders shampoo will debut this summer in French retailer Carrefour. And the rollout will eventually represent the world’s largest production of recyclable bottles made with post-consumer recycled beach plastic. The idea for the shampoo bottle came about a year ago at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, when the Ellen MacArthur Foundation challenged P&G to “drive greater recovery and reuse of plastics,” Helias told us. P&G felt Head and Shoulders, the “the leading shampoo brand in sales,” should be the label to “lead in sustainability innovation,” Helias said. P&G’s partnership with TerraCycle and SUEZ “brought about the largest solution to ocean plastic to date in terms of volume and percentage used in the package,” Tom Szaky, CEO and founder, TerraCycle told TriplePundit. The “problem of ocean plastic is immense,” Szaky explained. Over 25 percent of global plastic waste winds up in marine systems. “Only with a project that provide business value will we be able to clean up the plastic clogging our beaches, rivers, inlets and other waterways,” he said. P&G will also include up to 25 percent post-consumer plastic in over half a billion bottles in Europe by the end of 2018. That will represent over 90 percent of all P&G’s hair care bottles sold in Europe. P&G has used recycled plastic in its packaging for over 25 years — and it used 34,100 metric tons in 2016. Helias said the company “committed” to using post-consumer recycled material and helping to “build a marketplace by providing consistent end markets.”

Calling all environmentalist...Are you a keen recycler? Do you wonder what to do with those hard-to-recycle materials like yoghurt pouches, coffee capsules and toothpaste tubes? Ahead of Earth Day later this month community members are being sought to sign up as recycling hubs to deal with just those items which would otherwise end up in landfill. TerraCycle, an eco-friendly recycling company that has become a global leader in recycling typically non-recyclable waste, is behind the scheme to grow the public drop-off network. The network comprises all kinds of locations, including schools, sports clubs, community centres, libraries, offices, and individual homes. The waste products are then recycled or upcycled rather than being incinerated or ending up in landfill. Items are shredded and turned into plastic pellets which can be used to make new items including playground equipment, fitness equipment and outdoor furniture. There are 233 active participants in North Canterbury for recycling programmes and about 18 drop-off points, most of which are florists collecting for the Nespresso Coffee Capsules Programme. As well as coffee capsules, other programmes available in New Zealand the Fonterra Pouch Recycling Programme, the GLAD Food Storage Recycling Programme and the Oral Care Recycling programme sponsored by Colgate. The programmes then give back to communities through a points scheme, raising money for a chosen school or not-for-profit organisation. Globally, TerraCycle works with more than 110 or the world's largest consumer goods brands to collect 75 different waste streams, including coffee capsules, toothbrushes, chewing gum and even cigarette waste. It operates in 20 countries and has over 60 million people participating globally in its programmes to collect waste and has diverted almost 5 billion units of waste from landfill and paid more than $15 million to charities and schools worldwide. To learn more about TerraCycle or get involved, visit terracycle.com Northern Outlook_Apr 11

An important part of living more lightly on this earth is to reduce the use of resources and the amount of items going to landfill. Nothing in the natural world is wasted. Instead the output from one system goes on to feed another system. For instance a trees that dies, slowly returns to the earth in a process that feeds numerous micro-organisms and provides nutrients for other plants to grow. Sadly humans have created a production system where commodities are designed to be thrown away when we no longer need them. This has resulted in the creation of large waste sites where festering mounds of discarded materials leach toxic chemicals into the surrounding environment and use valuable land space. To see a landfill site in all its ugly stinking mess provides a striking example of why we need to change our system of production and consumption. The Adelaide Sustainability Centre ran a series of demonstrations at WOMAD this year around this topic. Themed as “Zero Waste Life Hacks” they covered a number of facets of daily life from seed saving and composting, DIY home products, how to darn a sock and how to make bricks from bottles. A number of useful resources and links from these WOMAD workshops can be accessed by clicking here. The Adelaide Sustainability Centre regularly runs a number of workshops that are designed to help us learn skills to live more lightly on this planet. Sign up for the newsletter and keep up to date with the latest workshops .   Further resources:

• Story of Stuff Movie
• Circular Economy Australia
• Cradle to Cradle Manufacturing

Australian Zero-Waste blogs:

• The Rouge Ginger
• Treading my Own Path

The Adelaide Sustainability Centre is a drop off point for:

• Hard to recycle products including Oral Care products, Mailing Satchels and Beauty Products through a partnership with TerraCycle Australia.
• Mobiles and phone accessories through a partnership with Mobile Muster.

Target is looking to make your Spring-cleaning efforts a bit easier this year by offering to take old car seats off your hands. In exchange for the used seats, the company will give you a 20 percent discount on a new seat of your choice. The trade-in program, which will take place in Target stores from April 17 to 30, 2017, is in partnership with TerraCycle — a company that recycles hard-to-recycle waste — which will work to upcycle the old car seats into new products. Through the initiative, Target believes it will "keep more than 700,000 pounds of car seat materials out of landfills." "In honor of Earth Month, we wanted to make it easy for guests to do something positive for the planet and their communities," says Target's chief sustainability officer, Jennifer Silberman. "We love this opportunity to give families an environmentally friendly way to dispose of unwanted car seatsand get the new ones they need just in time for Spring." If you're excited about this program and are planning to take full advantage of the coupon that comes with the trade-in, check out Target's lineup of car seats available to choose from while you wait for April 17 to roll around (your coupon will only be valid until May 31, 2017, so be ready!).

Has your little one outgrown their carseat, or perhaps you want an upgrade. Whatever the case, trade it in by taking it to your local Target starting April 17–30, for a coupon for 20% off any car seat in our stores or online, good through May 31. What happens to all those car seats they collect? Target has teamed up with TerraCycle to make sure they get recycled, or upcycled into new products. Through the partnership, they expect to keep more than 700,000 pounds of car seat materials out of landfills.

Target Stores, including the one in Vallejo — at 904 Admiral Callaghan Lane — has launched a car seat recycling/upgrade program, “just in time for Earth Day,” company officials announced. “It’s spring cleaning time and if an old car seat is on the toss list, Target has you covered,” the announcement says. “Target is teaming up with TerraCycle for a car seat recycling program from April 17-30.” Durign that time, people can drop off an old car seat at their local Target store to be recycled, and then receive a coupon for 20 percent off any car seat purchase in store or at Target.com, good through May 31, officials said. “After receiving positive guest feedback on a test of the program in 90 stores last September, Target is kicking off its first trade-in program available at most stores across the country,” they said. “The program encourages guests to upgrade car seats to the appropriate size for their child to meet car seat safety standards, and Target expects to keep more than 700,000 pounds of car seat materials out of landfills through the partnership.” Bins will be located either in the store’s “baby” section or near the front of the store, and guests can then locate a team member to receive the coupon, they said.

Admit it: You have at least one outgrown car seat moldering away in a closet or the garage. Everyone does, because you paid good money for it, used it daily, and then when you didn’t need it anymore, soon realized that no one wants a used car seat. Charities generally won’t take them, they don’t sell at yard sales, friends don’t want them, and if you had thoughts of recycling them so that the plastic and metal would get reused, you soon realized that was unlikely, if not impossible. (For more on that, see BabyCenter’s story Can you recycle car seats? Why that’s a tough question to answer) So what are you supposed to do with your old car seat? Just throw it in the trash? Well, yeah — unless you live in one of the rare communities that offer a car seat recycling program, that’s what experts generally advise: cut the straps so the seat can’t be used again, recycle any parts you can, and dump the rest in the trash. Not many people are comfortable doing that, and so the car seats in garages continue to wait for their final destination. But if you live near a Target, you have another option: Target is teaming up with nationwide recycling company TerraCycle to launch a massive — and unprecedented — car seat recycling program. Bring in your old car seat(s) (you can bring 4 per day!) from April 17-30, and you’ll get a coupon for 20 percent off any car seat purchase, in-store or online. You can use the coupon until May 31, 2017. Sharp readers may be wondering why I called the Target Take Back “unprecedented,” when Babies”R”Us and Toys”R”Us have been hosting their Great Trade-In events for years. Though both programs do exchange used baby gear for discounts on new stuff (and you may have believed/hoped that what you brought there was recycled), the store merely safely disposes of used gear instead of recycling it. And no shade on these stores, either, the principal problem with recycling baby gear is that it simply isn’t made with recycling in mind. It’s made to be safe, useful, and cute — not to be used again. Target expects to get more then 700,000 pounds of donated seats, based on what the company received in a test for the program that was held in 90 stores in September. Look for bins in Target’s Baby section, or near the front of the store. Don’t see one? Ask, and it shall be found for you. Veronica Rajadnya, a representative for TerraCycle, says that the donated seats will be collected at Target’s distribution center and shipped to TerraCycle’s third-party recycling partners in various areas of the country. There the seats will be pried apart, their components separated, the plastic melted and “pelletized,” and from there sold to manufacturers to make into new products, like “plastic wood” pallets, park benches, playground equipment, and furniture: “In [TerraCycle’s] courtyard we have a chair made entirely out of old Capri Sun packets, it’s the most comfortable chair ever.”

People are encouraged to become "recycling hubs" as part of this year's Earth Day and Month celebrations. International recycling company TerraCycle is calling for Kiwis to serve as public drop-off points for recyclable materials. TerraCycle runs free recycling programmes in New Zealand dealing with waste such as coffee capsules and yogurt pouches. People involved with its programmes normally collect recycling in their home, office or school, bit it also has a network of public drop-off points where anyone can leave appropriate items to be recycled. Earth Day is marked on April 22 while Earth Month runs throughout April. Go to terracycle.co.nz and search for the free recycling programmes for more information and to become a public drop-off point. Manukau Courier_Apr 10 (1)