Author ArchivesSven Herselman
MEDIA RELEASE: New Zealand’s largest general insurer, IAG (trading under the brands AMI, State, NZI, NAC, Lumley and Lantern) is encouraging caregivers with young children to double check the condition of their child car restraints in the lead up to the Christmas holidays. The call comes as IAG completes a review of its child car restraints claims processes. As a result, it is now giving greater protection to customers whose vehicles are stolen and unrecovered or involved in accidents. IAG Executive General Manager Claims, Dean MacGregor, says, “child car seats and capsules are critical for keeping little ones safe while travelling, yet certain types of vehicle impacts can compromise a restraint’s integrity. In some cases, there may not be any ...
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MEDIA RELEASE: With the summer holidays just around the corner, parents and caregivers in South Wairarapa are being encouraged to check their child car seats. Wairarapa Road Safety Council Projects Coordinator, Holly Hullena says the Wairarapa has seen a huge increase in expired and incorrectly fitted car seats in vehicles. “It’s not uncommon for people to give used seats to family members or friends in goodwill, but eight out of the 10 seats have already expired, putting the next users at risk.” To help caregivers tackle this problem, the Wairarapa Road Safety Council, South Wairarapa District Council and SeatSmart child car seat recycling are joining forces with a seat recycling amnesty and car seat clinic in Featherston in early November. ...
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MEDIA RELEASE: When economic times are tough it’s often things like sustainability initiatives which get cut back, but one car rental company isn’t letting the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic stop its drive for a better future. As part of its wider move towards greater sustainability, Thrifty Car Rental has the expired or damaged child car seats from its Auckland branches recycled through the SeatSmart programme. Even with the economic impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector, Thrifty has continued this initiative by recently taking another 21 seats in to be recycled. “Even in these challenging and unprecedented times, the importance of reducing our carbon footprint and our goal of becoming a carbon neutral company remains a key priority to ...
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Damaged or expired child car seats don’t need to go to the tip in Central Otago now the SeatSmart child car seat recycling programme has launched in the district. The Central Otago District Council has also come on board by offering a subsidy to encourage residents to make the most of this recycling programme and reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill. SeatSmart Programme Manager Toni Bye says child car seats contain a large amount of recyclable material, such as metal and plastic. Around 70% of seat materials by weight can be reused or recycled, she says. Plus, providing a recycling option helps keep expired or damaged seats out of circulation. “It’s a real waste to send these ...
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MEDIA RELEASE: Dismantling child car seats isn’t the first thing which comes to mind when finding work experience, but a group of young men and women from LIFT Youth Employment have been taking it in their stride. Between them, the Hawke’s Bay youths spent the past five weeks – one day a week – working with Hastings-based sustainability experts 3R Group, which runs the SeatSmart child car seat recycling programme. Together, Trojan Kawana, Uriah Tamati-Smith, Marika Katane, Panaomealeli Suai, Paremaina Wiperi, and Cullen Waina have put their problem-solving skills to the test dismantling expired or damaged child car seats so the components can be recycled. 3R Group operations manager Steve Nicholls says taking a seat apart is much more challenging ...
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The Green Collective, in Nelson, is one of a new breed of businesses putting sustainability at the heart of its thinking, planning and doing. We chatted to founder Emma Saunders during the COVID-19 lockdown to find out more about her work and drive for a sustainable world. Tell us about The Green Collective and the bags you make using straps from the SeatSmart programme. All our products follow the simple concept of being as sustainable as possible from start to finish. We reuse our offcuts, trimmed threads and more. For the ENCORE bags, I went a step further and looked at others’ manufacturing waste. I often drive past skips and pull over to investigate, build a relationship with the manager and see what new product could ...
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The SeatSmart Child Car Seat Recycling programme and the South Waikato Achievement Trust (SWAT) have been working together since November 2018, with SeatSmart sending many of the seats it collects to SWAT for dismantling. The result, says SeatSmart programme manager Toni Bye, is a social and environmental win-win. “It’s our ethos to maximise the environmental and social impact of the programme. So, when we realised we needed to look at new options for dismantling seats we sought out social enterprises,” she says. Previously all the seats were dismantled by offenders in Department of Corrections community work programmes. However, with the increase in volume and complexity of the seats, the decision was made to use social enterprises for much of the ...
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The road trip is a Kiwi tradition over the holidays, so now is a good time to check the safety of the seat your most precious cargo travels in. The manager of the country’s only child car seat recycling programme, SeatSmart, is urging parents and caregivers to check their children’s seats aren’t expired or damaged before heading off for the holidays. “Many people don’t know that child car seats have expiry dates,” says SeatSmart programme manager Toni Bye. “On average a seat will have an expiry date of six to 10 years.” Plunket Regional Injury Prevention Manager Simone Budel says there are a variety of reason for an expiry date on seats. “Frequent use and exposure to sunlight can damage ...
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The Wairarapa Road Safety Council is holding a free two-week collection of expired child car seats from 5 – 19 December. Road safety council Child Restrain Technician Holly Hullena says seats can be dropped off at REAP House (340 Queen Street) in Masterton, the Salvation Army (High Street) in Carterton, and the Featherston Community Centre (14 Wakefield Street) in Featherston. This is the second year the road safety council is running the seat collection project, she says. The Wairarapa region has no car seat rental options, which has led to expired car seats in particular being a huge issue, Holly says. “Although we have outlets such as Farmers, Super Cheap Auto and The Warehouse, all in Masterton, that sell certified ...
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Hamiltonians wanting to recycle their child car seats now have a second option with Go Eco Waikato Environment Centre coming on board with the SeatSmart programme. The charitable trust is now the 37th collection site nationwide for SeatSmart, a programme run by recycling experts 3R Group. It aims to tackle the issue of some 100,000 child car seats being sent to landfill each year in New Zealand, as well as raise awareness around the seats’ expiry dates. “People don’t always know that child car seats have expiry dates. The extremes of temperature in cars, stress on plastic parts, all takes a toll on seats. It’s therefore important to know when seats are due to expire and get them out of ...
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