Getting rid of breast pumps

[nicolewi]

What did you do with yours? There is no practical way to recycle that I have found and places don't take them as donations. I have a Medela pump (not hospital grade) that I used rarely for just one kid, but five years ago--worked great. I have an Ameda that is old and not effective. I will just toss it unless someone knows of an easy way to recycle. They have been sitting in my basement and I want to get them out.

I have a hand pump that I am going to put on FB Marketplace for either cheap or free. I don't see why you can't boil all the parts. I have extra new tiny filter flap thingies and some bottles that go with it. 

What a waste it is with all these nearly new pumps out there and nothing practical to do with them!

[pooh8402]

Following. I need to get rid of my Spectra. I'm keeping my PISA for now since I'm still getting clogs and that one is better at removing them than the Spectra or hand pump. Even E2 is not that great at removing them because he nurses so quickly now.

[Mrs.flang]

Medela has a recycling program that you can mail them to. I had two PISAs that I sent them recently.

www.medela.us/mbus/medela-recycles

[Susie]

Following. I have a PISA from baby #1, and two Spectra S1s from this time that I am on the verge of retiring (DS turns 1 on Monday!). I am ready to send the Medela along now. The S1s I was thinking of trying to sell on FB since they are closed systems and wouldn't have any potential milk contamination in them.

[mccallister84]

I gave mine away on our local breastfeeding group page.

But there are (were?) engineers who were using breast pumps to make ventilators (this is super broad brush I don’t know the details) so a friend collected a ton and drove them down to them in late March. May be worth looking in to see if there’s anything like that going on in your area.

[jade]

I gave my medela pumps away to someone who was collecting them to be cleaned and refurbished to give to women in need. She was soliciting for donations on facebook. It was super easy, she just came to my house and took them all away.

I plan to try and pass my current pump to a friend. If she doesn't want it, I will offer it on marketplace/craigslist.

[pandorica]

I was wondering this. I have two S2s. I thought I might be able to pass them on to a friend but she said she didn't need them.

[freshsqueezed]

I have 2 Spectra new in box. I was thinking about asking our pediatrician if she knew anyone who could use them.

[icedcoffee]

I'm going to try to give my Spectra's away on FB or Craigslist since they're closed systems. I have 2 S2s and 1 S1.

I think the recycling program for Medela is your best bet.

[minzy]

Timely question, my younger kid is coming up on seven and I actually tried earlier this week to get rid of a pump. I had heard a few months ago about a ventilator design competition people were working on to create additional ventilator capacity in the face of coronavirus. At the time, at least one of the groups was soliciting donations of used breast pumps. It looks like I waited too long; they emailed me back the other day and said they don’t need any more at this point.

For anyone interested, details about the competition are here: www.agorize.com/en/challenges/code-life-challenge

I guess I’ll try looking into the Medela recycling program (though mine is a different brand).

[jackie011]

There’s a baby store here that has recycling events once a month. I was all set to take mine over there on March 15 😬. So, I’ll try again when they restart.

[loira]

I sold mine on a FB marketplace-type app. It's the only piece of baby equipment I've managed to get around to selling, such was my hatred of pumping and desire never to hear the 'whoompa whoompa whoompa" again.

[mbcdefg]

I’m on a local FB Moms group and I offered it for free on there. Someone asked for it right away.

[al dente]

I’d try a local buy nothing group or mom group.

But, I will warn you breast pumps get flagged as medical devices and sometimes blocked from FB. I tried giving my million pump bags away and never could get it to get accepted on Facebook. I also only tried twice but figured that was enough work and I’ll just physically donate them haha.

[readyin07]

I ended up throwing away both of my pisa. By the end of their use their suction was crummy and I couldn’t figure out what else to do with it:

[estrellita]

I sold mine on a local FB moms group. Someone was asking for the kind I had. I got it free so I just charged for the extra accessories.

[sandandsea]

I donated my PISA to a crisis pregnancy center that helps support new moms and gives the essentials like cribs, clothes, and other baby gear. Many of the moms don’t have insurance so it’s a way for them to get one and the center buys all new parts for them (tubing, shields, etc). Also a women’s shelter may take it.