A major city council is looking at subsidising “granny trolleys” for vulnerable residents to reduce the number of shopping trolleys dumped in the area.
Sydney’s Liverpool City Council said it was looking at providing the two-wheel canvas frame trolleys in a move “it hopes will drastically reduce the dumping of supermarket-owned trolleys across the city”.
The council in the city’s west on Monday said it had impounded nearly 1200 shopping trolleys in the past two months, prompting the plan to supply up to 500 so-called granny trolleys.
“While the law places responsibility for trolleys fair and square at the supermarkets, Council is left with the problem and so Council has come up with a solution,” Deputy Mayor Peter Harle said in a statement.
“In some ways it’s an old-fashioned solution to a modern problem. Years ago, every home had its own shopping trolley and by going ‘back to the future’ we can probably find a commonsense solution to a massive problem.”
Griffith University marketing professor Sharyn Rundle-Thiele said the initiative could have merit in the area and other cities, but suggested more work was needed to determine why trolleys were being dumped.
It was unclear whether those dumping trolleys were children “using the trolleys for joyriding, or is it people who actually need to take a lot of groceries somewhere and so just take the trolleys for a walk”, she said.
“It could be that we’re moving towards the wrong people with the wrong ideas,” the academic said.
Supermarket giant Woolworths, when asked if believed the plan had merits, said most of its customers did the “right thing” and returned shopping trolleys.
“Abandoned trolleys can be a nuisance and that’s why we invest millions in collection services and have additional measures in place which feature a locking mechanism to help mitigate their impact in the community,” a Woolworths spokesperson said in a statement.
Supermarkets have previously trialled coin-locked shopping trolleys in a bid to stop trolley dumping in waterways, parks and on footpaths, but the initiatives have faced backlash from shoppers.
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