In short
Act 204-2024 created the Car Seat Collection, Reuse and Recycling Program, attached to the Puerto Rico Fire Bureau and the Traffic Safety Commission. The program receives donated car seats and booster seats, screens them, and hands out the suitable ones to people who show they lack the means to buy one. To be reusable a seat must be within its useful life, keep its labels, buckles and attachments, comply with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) standards and guidelines, and be certified in that compliance by the Fire Bureau. Seats unfit for reuse are recycled. Act 2 of 2026 made one targeted change: it removed the requirement that a donation arrive with its instruction manual, because that requirement alone was discarding many seats in good condition.
What is it?
It is a public program that collects used car seats in good condition, certifies them, and hands them to families who cannot afford to buy one. The Fire Bureau and the Traffic Safety Commission run it jointly.
Who can do it?
To receive a seat: any person who requests one and shows they lack the means to buy it. The law does not publish what proof of income is accepted, nor set an income limit. To donate: anyone handing in a car seat or booster seat that is within its useful life and keeps its labels, buckles and attachments. Since Act 2-2026 you no longer need to include the instruction manual.
Requirements
- To receive one: request it and show you lack the means to buy the seat.Verified against the official source
- The seat handed over must be in optimal condition allowing reuse and be within its useful life.Verified against the official source
- It must keep its proper labels, buckles and attachments.Verified against the official source
- It must comply with NHTSA standards, guidelines and useful life, and be certified in that compliance by the Fire Bureau.Verified against the official source
Documents you need
Cost
Step by step
Step 1: Decide whether you are requesting a seat or donating one
The program does both. On the requesting side, Article 4 of Act 204-2024 says anyone qualifies who requests a seat and shows they lack the means to buy it. On the donating side, the program receives car seats and booster seats that are in optimal condition for reuse.
Step 2: Check that the seat you are donating is still usable
A seat is accepted for reuse if it is within its useful life, keeps its labels, buckles and attachments, and complies with the standards, guidelines and useful life set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The Fire Bureau, not you, certifies that compliance. Since Act 2-2026 you do not have to hand it in with the instruction manual: that requirement was removed precisely because it was discarding good seats.
Step 3: Ask where your collection centre is
The law orders collection centres to be set up by a coordination agreement between the Fire Commissioner and the Commission's Executive Director, according to the need for the service and available resources, but publishes no addresses, hours or phone number. That is why this guide gives you no address: you have to ask the Fire Bureau or the Traffic Safety Commission directly which centre is operating and on what days.
Step 4: Use the correct-installation orientation
Article 3 provides that the program be integrated and coordinated with the inspection and orientation services on correct car seat use and proper installation that exist under Act 225-2003. A seat obtained properly but installed wrong does not protect. We did not read Act 225-2003, so we do not describe here how to request that inspection; ask at the same place where you pick up the seat.
Where to do it
With the Puerto Rico Fire Bureau or the Traffic Safety Commission, which run the program jointly, at the collection centres both agencies establish by agreement. The law does not publish which they are or where.
How long it takes
What to do if something goes wrong
This guide describes Articles 3, 4 and 5 of Act 204-2024 as Act 2-2026 left them, which is what we read. We did not read the rest of Act 204-2024 nor Act 225-2003, so we do not describe the program's funding, its penalties, or how to request an installation inspection. The law publishes no cost, processing time, collection centre addresses, hours, or what income evidence is accepted: that is why cost and time show as unverified and we invent no contact. If a seat was in a crash or its useful life expired, it is not a reuse candidate. PRFácil does not receive or hand out car seats.
Common mistakes
- Throwing away a car seat in good condition believing that without the instruction manual it can no longer be donated: Act 2-2026 removed that requirement.
- Donating a seat whose useful life expired or that was in a crash: the program only accepts seats within their useful life and in optimal condition.
- Donating a seat without its labels, buckles or attachments: the law requires it to keep them.
- Assuming the program hands a seat to anyone: you must show you lack the means to buy one.
- Thinking getting the seat is enough: the law coordinates the program with inspection and correct-installation orientation services precisely because installing it wrong cancels the protection.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to include the instruction manual to donate a seat?
No. That was the requirement Act 2 of 2026 removed. The Legislative Assembly found that throwing the manual away is a common consumer practice and that this alone does not affect the seat's usefulness, while the program keeps its other safety screens.
How much does it cost to receive a seat from the program?
The law publishes no cost. The program targets people who show they lack the means to buy a seat, but the text we read does not say whether anything is charged, so we do not assert it: ask the Fire Bureau or the Traffic Safety Commission.
Where is the nearest collection centre?
The law does not say. It orders collection centres to be set up by agreement between the Fire Commissioner and the Commission's Executive Director, according to service need and available resources. We do not publish an address we cannot cite to an official source.
What happens to seats unfit for reuse?
Article 5(e) orders a mechanism to be set up to recycle them, so that a seat that is no longer safe does not go back on the road but does not simply end up in the trash either.
Official sources
These are the government pages this guide is based on.
- Negociado del Cuerpo de Bomberos de Puerto Rico
Bomberos
bvirtualogp.pr.gov
Last verified
August 27, 2026
MiPRFácil is an independent informational website and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the Government of Puerto Rico or any government agency.
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