Off his trolley

IS ANYONE else sick and tired of seeing shopping trolleys abandoned in their area?
I recall a retired gentlemen who used to go around Pakenham and collect these trolleys, replete with ride-on and trailer but I believe that Vicroads or council may have seen an end to his enterprising ways, but that’s okay, because there’s a useless hotline you can call.
Yes, I am aware that there is a trolley hotline, just as I am also aware that it doesn’t cover all department stores in all areas – brilliant, isn’t it?
Fact is, very few people can be bothered ringing, especially when you get replies like, ‘Oh we don’t cover the Pakenham area’ or ‘that’s not our responsibility’ and then we find our estates looking like hard rubbish for shopping trolleys.
My message to council is firstly, accept that the trolley hotline does not work.
Secondly, I propose that Cardinia Council should impound all wayward shopping trolleys and charge department stores a fee, let’s say $25 each, to get them back.
Trolleys not reclaimed within a set time period should be sold for scrap metal.
This whole scheme would generate an income stream and offset any costs incurred for collection.
Let’s face it, we will never educate individuals who are too lazy to return their trolleys and they have managed to bypass the coin return mechanisms but you can certainly encourage companies to reclaim their assets, especially if it’s going to cost them money.
Over the last two weekends I personally returned 10 trolleys to Big W, Safeway, Coles, IGA and Target all within a few streets from my residence, not to mention the Sam’s Warehouse trolley that appeared in Bourke Park, which apparently took a holiday from Fountain Gate and didn’t make it back in time for the store to shut down permanently two weeks ago.
David Connor,
Pakenham.