How to Recycle Your Baby Gear

Babies and kids go through a lot of stuff. And while you may be tempted to stash or toss outgrown clothes, toys, and strollers, there's a more responsible—and easy!—way to clear the clutter. Giving your child's used items a new home or recycling them will make you and the planet feel great.

Good news: You can ignore the numbers on the bottom of plastic containers. Instead, to make recycling easier, plastics are often categorized by type: bottles, jugs, tubs, and lids. So, as long as your area accepts these items, toss them into your curbside bin.

Read on for more tips on the right way to recycle everything from clothing to food pouches.

Sippy Cups and Dishware

Toss used sippy cups and dishware into your curbside bin. Most are made of commonly recyclable PET or HDPE plastic. If they're still usable, ask local daycare centers, churches, schools, or families you know with younger kiddos if they'd like extras for snack time.

Food Pouches

In most cities, pouches and caps aren't recyclable on their own, but many companies such as Cerebelly and Serenity Kids sponsor recycling programs specifically for their products. Additionally, GoGo squeeZ sponsors a free recycling program with TerraCycle for plastic snack pouches from any brand. Collect and send them in by printing a free downloadable label from terracycle.com.

Milk Jugs and Cartons

Beverage cartons have recently been accepted as curbside recyclables in many locales, so place these and other plastic jugs in your recycling bin. Just make sure that they're completely empty and the caps are screwed on tight. (Caps are too small to be recycled on their own.)

Baby Food Jars

If your curbside-recycling program accepts glass, which most do, place baby food jars in the bin. You can skip the step of rinsing them first, though. As long as most of the food is scraped out of the jar, they're ready for recycling, says Alexa Kielty, the residential zero-waste assistant at the San Francisco Department of the Environment. And the metal lids? Toss them in if your community accepts them; a magnetic steel drum will collect them during the recycling process.

Baby Bathtub

You can donate your infant bathtub. But if your recycling program takes rigid plastics (these are plastics that hold a shape and are hard to break, such as a bucket or a laundry-detergent bottle), your baby bathtub can also go in the recyling bin.

Pacifiers

Because the nipples are prone to crack and harbor bacteria, Kielty doesn't recommend donating used pacifiers. And unfortunately, they're too small to make it through the recycling sorting process, so for now, these little guys have to go in the garbage. (Sorry!)

Plastic Bags

Any type of plastic bag or wrap is recyclable—bread bags, breast milk baggies, plastic wrap, and frozen-food packaging. Keep a shopping bag under your kitchen sink for stashing extras, suggests Brenda Pulley, senior vice president of recycling at Keep America Beautiful. When it's full, take it to a retailer such as Target that has a plastic-bag recycling receptacle, usually near the main entrance.

Diaper Pail

If it's made of rigid plastic and if your town's recycling services accept that, recycle it. But post it on Craigslist or Freecycle first. No one likes diaper odor, so it's an in-demand item!

Toddler Mattress

One too many accidents to give this away? Arrange a bulky item pickup by calling your waste-management department. Depending on the program, your town may recycle kids' mattresses. If that's not an option, try the nationwide company 1-800-GOTJUNK?, which is happy to get rid of your unwanted stuff responsibly.

Electronic Toys

General rule: If it has a cord or a battery, recycle it with other electronics. This means you can group these with a broken hair dryer, toaster, TV, and computer on your community's electronics recycling pickup day. Additionally, depending on the product, some retailers like Target and Amazon may take the item, recycle it for you, and offer you a store credit or discount in return.

Batteries

Don't just dump old batteries in the trash—they may contain lead, chemicals, and other metals that can contaminate and seep into our groundwater. Yuck! Instead, you can go to call2recycle.org to search 30,000 drop-off locations for old single-use, rechargeable, and damaged batteries.

Breast Pumps

If like 80% of U.S. hospitals you use a Medela breast pump, you can send both the motor unit and the cord back through the Medela Recycles program. Meanwhile, any manual pumps, breast shields, tubing, and other kit components can go straight into a curbside recycling container.

Clothing and Shoes

Participating Goodwill locations will take your kid's threads even if they're ripped or stained. Just put the items in a bag labeled "scrap." They'll go to recyclers for various uses: Jeans will be turned into insulation; T-shirts will become rags for the auto industry. Also, an increasing number of retailers, such as H&M and Patagonia, will recycle used clothing (and it doesn't always need to be purchased from the brand) for you—and give you store credit or a discount on a future purchase.

To donate children's shoes, print out a prepaid label from zapposforgood.com. Mail them off, and Zappos for Good, partnering with Soles4Souls, will get them to someone in need.

Books

Libraries, schools, and churches often welcome used books. Families with younger children would likely love them as well. If some of your books are beyond repair, put them in your regular paper recycling (remove hard covers). As for baby board books, they may not be recyclable because of their hard, coated cardboard, so check with your local recycling center.

Stuffed Animals

Most used stuffed animals can't be donated to kids because of the potential germ factor, but pet rescues love them! Ask your local shelter if it has safety restrictions on what's donated, such as loveys with beaded eyes. Group any items beyond the point of donation with ripped and holey clothing that's marked as "scrap," and give it all to charity, Pulley says.

Broken Crayons

Instead of throwing away used crayons, which are made from wax that won't break down naturally, send them to The Crayon Initiative, a nonprofit that turns any unwanted crayons into new ones that are then donated to children's hospitals.

Car Seat and Strollers

Unfortunately, strollers aren't recyclable curbside. If yours meets current safety standards, sell or donate it. For car seats, go to babyearth.com/renew. You'll pay to send it in, but all usable parts are recycled. Any fabrics go to developing countries while the foam, metal, and plastic parts are used for construction projects.