Torrington could put stores on hook for shopping carts

Torrington — Shopping carts are a common, useful item during trips to the store, but they’ve also become a nuisance, city officials contend.

To combat the problem of carts astray around the city, the Torrington Ordinance Committee has added language to Chapter 128 regarding solid waste: garbage, rubbish and refuse, putting the responsibility directly on store owners requiring a retrieval plan to ensure that the carts are collected daily.

The committee presented its proposed revisions to the City Council in March, and a public hearing on the changes is set for April 17 during the council’s regular meeting.

“Abandoned shopping carts in the city create a potential hazard to the health and safety of the public, interfere with pedestrian and vehicular traffic, and create a public nuisance,” the committee wrote in its proposal. “The accumulation of abandoned carts, sometimes wrecked and/or dismantled on public and private property, tends to create conditions that reduce property values, and promote blight and deterioration, resulting in a public nuisance.

“Further, lost, stolen or abandoned carts result in the obstruction of free access to public and private sidewalks, streets, parking lots, and interfere with pedestrian and vehicular traffic on public and private streets, and impede emergency services,” the committee wrote. “This section is intended to insure that measures are taken by the owners of shopping carts to prevent (their) removal from the owner’s premises, to make removal of a cart a violation of this Code, and to facilitate the retrieval of abandoned shopping carts.”

The committee wants every owner and retailer using carts to develop and implement a plan to prevent customers from removing them from the business property; and if removed, the owner would be required to retrieve the cart within 48 hours. This plan would be reviewed annually.

All businesses with shopping carts would be required to maintain an inventory, and written notification, using signs, flyers or a warnings on shopping bags, telling customers that removing a cart from the property is a violation of state and local law. All carts must be labeled with the retailer’s name and identifying information.

The committee also wants to require those retailers to install a disabling device on all carts, post security to prevent people from stealing them, or requiring a security deposit for a cart before it is removed from the store’s “containment system,” according to the draft ordinance language.

Recycling bins, which are still being overstuffed with trash along with other materials, and the contents of trash bins also are addressed in the revisions. The committee is mandating that trash be sorted; certain items, such as batteries, electronic waste, waste oil and light bulbs, are not allowed and must be brought to the city’s recycling center.