Bec fires off trolley volley
Mayor cracks down after shopping carts litter region
Supermarkets in Glenorchy will have to pay $100 for each abandoned shopping trolley returned after being impounded by the council.
Glenorchy Mayor Bec Thomas said the shopping trolleys were not only unsightly but were a public nuisance and potential safety risk and the community needed to be told not to dump them.
“In just a few hours, council staff collected more than 70 abandoned trolleys from areas in and around our CBD areas,” she said.
“It’s a problem in every city but we’re sick and tired of seeing them strewn around.
“Abandoned trolleys are an eyesore, and as a council we have a responsibility to ensure we keep our municipality as tidy as possible, which is why we are collecting them and impounding them.”
Council work crews will pick up the dumped trolleys and impound them and every month council will contact supermarkets, including Woolworths, Coles and Big W, to collect them or they would be crushed.
“Once they are impounded, we contact the retailers who own them to collect them, charging a fee to lessen the impost on ratepayers,” Ms Thomas said.
“Northgate management have offered to help by installing two new trolley bays out the front of the building to eliminate some of the issues with trolleys.”
Glenorchy Alderman Russell Yaxley says abandoned shopping trolleys are a constant source of annoyance in the community.
“Cleaning up litter of any sort, let alone shopping trolleys, is a cost burden on ratepayers, particularly when all that needs to happen is for people to do the right thing in the first place and return them to the retailer when they have finished with them,” he said.
“Trolleys should not be removed from the retailer’s property and should be returned after use to a dedicated collection bay.
“They can potentially become a hazard for pedestrians or motorists or end up dumped in drains or waterways.
“An abandoned trolley is a cost to the community. It’s as simple as that.”
Ms Thomas said a council crackdown on abandoned trolleys a few years ago had been successful.
She said major retailers had hotlines people could contact to alert them to abandoned trolleys, and the council would be posting these details on its website.
“One of our goals is to be a clean and litter-free municipality, and we all need to work together to make this happen,” she said.
Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said: “It sounds like an interesting approach to the problem.”