Shops face £100 fee over trolley dumping 'scourge'

Dumped trolleys have a "negative visual impact", contribute to antisocial behaviour and harm the environment, Newport council says

Supermarkets face having to fork out £100 to get back dumped trolleys in a city trying to tackle its fly-tipping problem.

"A scourge on our landscape," is how Newport deputy leader Deb Davies described fly-tipped carts, saying they encourage bad behaviour, harm wildlife and damage waterways.

The council is giving shops six weeks to collect the trolleys it retrieves - for a £100 fee - or be billed for their disposal.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) called on consumers to bring back their trolleys and for the public to report trolley dumping incidents.

The council said it was "sick and tired" of fly-tipping and did not want to spend money "cleaning up other people's illegally dumped mess".

"There’s an increasing amount of trolleys - we absolutely need them removed, we need to take a firm stance on that," Ms Davies added.

The new fees - which the city believes will be more appealing to businesses than paying between £120 and £200 for a new trolley - were approved on Thursday following a consultation and report from the council's climate change, waste and recycling committee.

Ms Davies said any revenue from fining supermarkets will go back into fighting fly-tipping in the city.

Newport deputy leader Deb Davies says young people are riding on abandoned trolleys

"I think people tend to take the shopping home, and they just abandon the trolley.

"Kids think it's a nice thing to go and have a ride on," she said.

"They just disappear from supermarkets, and supermarkets need to take accountability and responsibility."

Celia Jeffries, 70, agreed, saying trolley dumping is a big problem.

Celia says customers should take their trolleys back

"You do see shopping trolleys just thrown on the side of the road or just left everywhere," she said.

"I don't see why it's a problem putting them back when you've done your shopping."

Omo Vigho, 30 an international student in Newport said he sees dumped trolleys all the time.

"I put the food in my car and I return [my trolley] back to where it's meant to be kept," he said.

People who dump trolleys are "defacing" Newport, says international student Omo

"These people are bringing [trolleys] out here, it's not nice, they are defacing the place," he said.

Charging supermarkets for dumped trolleys, "is a good idea", he added.

Newport council said it would look to collaborate with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to recover trolleys from rivers, as it "cannot assume responsibility for recovery operations" due to a lack of resources.

The environmental watchdog said responsibility for removing waste from rivers fell to the landowner.

A NRW spokesperson said: "We are working hard to try to keep waste out of rivers to the best of our ability, but there is no simple solution to this societal challenge.

"We need a collaborative and catchment-wide solution, with a mixture of better waste management, enforcement and education - not something any one organisation can do alone."

Newport council is giving shops six weeks to collect the trolleys it retrieves - for a £100 fee - or be billed for their disposal

After a consultation, the council said it had a response from one retail chain, B&M.

B&M said it acknowledged the issue but preferred the term "stolen" trolleys which it said were a very small percentage of trolleys used.

The BRC said people can help by telling their local store about abandoned trolleys or reporting them on the Trolleywise app.

"Retailers are responsible for retrieving abandoned trolleys and encourage the public to report any sightings," a BRC spokesperson said.

"Customers must return their trolleys after shopping so others can use them, and they do not harm the local environment," they added.

Additional reporting by James McCarthy