Baby Bunting’s Regional Manager for Aotearoa New Zealand, Danny Beh.
Specialist baby goods retailer Baby Bunting, which opened its first New Zealand store in August 2022, is offering a $10 subsidy for any child car seat returned to the store for recycling through the SeatSmart programme. This applies to any brand of child car seat, no matter where it was purchased.
Additionally, any seats purchased from Baby Bunting, which have been subsequently damaged or expired, will have the full cost of recycling covered when returned to their Albany store in Auckland.
This makes Baby Bunting the only retailer in New Zealand currently to fully cover the cost of recycling the child car seats it sells.
The initiative is welcomed by 3R Group’s Toni Bye. Toni is the programme manager for 3R’s SeatSmart child car seat recycling programme.
“We’re delighted that Baby Bunting are taking responsibility for the seats they sell when they are no longer fit for use. This, along with reducing the cost of recycling for any other unwanted seats, is to be applauded,” she says.
The partnership aligns with Baby Bunting’s sustainability strategy, which has identified progressing product stewardship as a key area to reduce its environmental impact. This is also the ultimate goal of the SeatSmart programme.
“We want to make it as easy as possible for our customers to responsibly dispose of their expired or damaged car seats” says Danielle Beh, Baby Bunting’s Regional Manager for Aotearoa New Zealand. “Covering the SeatSmart cost for seats purchased from Baby Bunting, and subsidising others, is a practical way to do this. Ultimately, our goal is to enable as many car seats as possible to be recycled.”
SeatSmart has been operating as New Zealand’s only child car seat recycling programme since 2016 with people bringing seats in to be recycled paying a recycling fee, Toni says. “This covers the transport, handling and dismantling of the seats. There are a number of councils, and now Baby Bunting, which subsidise the cost to make seat recycling more accessible.”
The programme has 45 collection sites in nine regions around New Zealand.
Danielle says that the Baby Bunting store in Albany, Auckland is their first SeatSmart drop off point and there are plans to incorporate a SeatSmart drop off point in each new Baby Bunting store opened in New Zealand.
“We’ll work closely with SeatSmart to achieve this,” she says. “We also want to acknowledge the hard work that 3R Group have put into SeatSmart over the years. We’re proud to be part of the programme.”