Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor, Bilal El-Hayek says he’s fed up with abandoned shopping trolleys littering suburbs and is threatening to seize and destroy them.
He says the trolleys are posing safety concerns for pedestrians and motorists and are an unsightly scourge on local streets, parks and waterways.
In a scathing Mayoral Minute endorsed at last month’s Council Meeting, Council resolved to write to the CEOs of all major supermarkets in Canterbury-Bankstown, demanding an explanation on how they collect abandoned trolleys and what measures they are putting in place to stop this from occurring.
Mayor El-Hayek said there were more than 30 major retailers in the city and they should be held accountable.
“The major chains that are making billions of dollars in profits each year, yet they’ve put the handbrake on investing in more smart trolleys that they can track or immobilise trolleys when leaving the stores’ boundaries,” Mayor El-Hayek said.
“I’ve had enough and I’m exploring every possibility to seize dumped trolleys and recycle them.”
The Council is trialling new AI technology when it comes to tackling wayward shopping carts, by rolling out a series of side-mounted cameras on its fleet of street sweepers.
The cameras record images (pictured, main image) of abandoned trolleys into a database, which compiles a heatmap (pictured, below) showing problem areas.
The Council says initial results have proven highly successful, with street sweepers detecting hundreds of abandoned trolleys a week. Some of the problem suburbs include Bankstown, Punchbowl, Lakemba and Campsie.
Mayor El-Hayek said the technology is revolutionising the way Council deals with the issue but reiterates that he needs supermarket chains and the State Government to focus on implementing real solutions.
“I’ve also written to the Minister responsible to impose heavier fines and make it easier for councils to fine lax supermarkets.”
