A twitter chat with Retail Week's George MacDonald put me onto a new app from trolley retrieval company Trolleywise who collect trollies abandoned on the streets and in our waterways.
Long time users of this site will recall my alter ego, Mrs E the Community Volunteer, and her never ending quest for cleaner streets. Abandoned trollies were one of my bugbears as I wasn't sure who would collect them. Former Co-op trolley boy, Mr E pointed out (and I wrote up in a blog post) that trolley theft costs companies a lot of money and so they are often happy to come and collect from a localised area but what of trollies that are far from home or in too bad a state, and can people really be bothered to ring/email stores about them?
This new app makes it very simple to report. A photo, a confirmation of a location and the report is logged.
I put my new app to the test this morning at 9.30, reporting this trolley queue that had formed in Lausanne Road which had apparently been there a few days.
On my way back down the Passage at 3pm, I was very pleased to see that the trollies were gone.
Download the app and go trolley spotting today!
Plus there's a donation made by the company to Trees for Cities for every report made.
Tags for Forum Posts: shopping trollies, trolleywise
Thanks for this Liz
This is intriguing. The Trolleywise website page How we do it explains that they're based in Newport, Wales and that: "Our goal is to return the assets back to the retailer, create a cleaner environment and minimise illegal fly tipping".
Which sounds great. But they describe their "national fleet of 45+ vehicles and 60+ dedicated fully trained personnel". Which doesn't seem very many to cover the entire country. Especially as they say that: "these trolleys are usually found on walkways, in roads, parks, rivers, canals and around residential areas". And that they: "work with local councils, authorities, (DEFRA/Canal & River Trust), and retailers."
They also explain that currently: "these specialist vehicles are only directed towards known trolley hotspots where trolleys are regularly found abandoned."
So it seems that Harringay is a hotspot. Or perhaps they are working with Sainsbury's?
Just to be clear, I'm not knocking this company; nor criticising their aim. But I'm curious to know more about how it works; and where their service reaches - and where it doesn't.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor for another 350 days)
I imagine if you contact them, they will probably tell you.
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