The continued dumping of supermarket shopping trolleys in streets around Rutherford has sparked a call from several residents for tougher action to stop the unsightly and costly problem.
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In the latest incident, a trolley has been left lying outside a house in Fahey Street, Rutherford, since early December.
Mary Wood, a visitor to Maitland from Queensland, said the dumping of trolleys in the city was a disgrace.
“We live in Queensland and we don’t have this sort of problem there,” Mrs Wood said.
“It is disgusting the way some people here treat property and it is not their own.
“There are always lots of people walking around here so we don’t know who does this.”
Another resident, who declined to be named, said: “This particular trolley has been here since December 13.
“I know, because I had been away and I came back that day to find it here,” she said.
“We are really fed up about the situation.”
A Coles spokesperson said: “At present our Maitland store has a coin lock system on our trolleys only –but we do have plans to also roll out a wheel lock system for our larger trolleys.
“By preventing the removal of trolleys from the Coles car park, we can also reduce the incidence of trolleys being abandoned in the local area, which we understand is a concern to the community.”
A spokesperson for Woolworths said: “We provide customers with trolleys for their convenience and the vast majority of customers do the right thing and take them from the store or surrounds.
“Woolworths uses trolley collectors who do regular sweeps of streets around our stores and they collect abandoned trolleys.”
An ALDI Australia spokesperson said: “We have a coin deposit system across all our stores, which has been in place since 2001.
“ALDI loses very few trolleys and on the odd occasion when a trolley is abandoned, a customer usually alerts us and the trolley is collected, repaired or destroyed if necessary.”