Trolleys continue to soak in watery ‘grave’
SWANSEA’S main river is still blighted by a large number of shopping trolleys which have been dumped there for at least the last three years.
It only takes a walk along the bridge connecting the Liberty Stadium and Morfa Retail Park to see the carts, largely belonging to nearby supermarket Morrisons, located underwater or among verges and overgrowth. They can be spotted along a stretch of around 200 metres of the River Tawe.
In 2018, we reported how Hollie Cockings and her husband Benjamin had gone paddle boarding and had counted 76 different trolleys either scattered around or submerged in the water.
Following her sighting, a company called Wanzl, which operates a service called Trolleywise, specialising in the retrieval of trolleys from shops and retail car parks all across the UK, said it planned to carry out a risk assessment in the area before removing the trolleys themselves.
But it appears that the matter is yet to be resolved, as our pictures show the problem is still as bad as ever.
Rusting trolleys can be spotted deeply lodged into muddy riverbanks, upside down under water, entangled in overgrowth and in precarious areas.
A spokeswoman for Natural Resources Wales explained who was responsible for the recovery of the trolleys.
She said: “It is the responsibility of the supermarkets to control the issue and clean up the dumped trolleys. They cause a real blight on the aesthetics of the river environment, but are not technically classed as waste or as causing pollution problems.”
Councillor for the area, Beverley Hopkins, said: “It is a big operation. It is not like retrieving them from anywhere else. There is likely to be a cost implication involved. Somewhere along the line it needs to be dealt with, I do have big concerns over it. That area is being developed with a new landing pontoon and it would be nice if this could be resolved to coincide alongside that.”
Morrisons and Wanzl have both been approached for comment.