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British Waterways Scotland Initiative -
"Shop a Trolley"

The Launch of a New British Waterways Hotline to Expose Environmentally Irresponsible Retailers

British Waterways Scotland launches a new Trolley Hotline  01923 201120

This new hotline encourages people people to report sightings of abandoned trolleys in the canals of Scotland. This initiative, part of a UK-wide campaign, will help British Waterways Scotland to map trolley ‘hotspots’ along the canals in Scotland, quickly retrieve the offending items and ‘shop’ the irresponsible retailers allowing these metal shopping carriers to ruin one of Scotland’s greatest assets.

Later in the year British Waterways Scotland will use the information logged by the general public to produce a hotspot map and a league table of the least and most environmentally responsible retailers in Scotland. A ‘Golden Trolley Award’ will be presented to the retailer showing best environmental management of its trolleys, while an ‘Off Your Trolley Award’ will be presented to the least environmentally responsible retailer.

British Waterways Scotland needs Scots to help in this activity to ‘shop’ the culprits after figures show that it wastes £7,000 of public money every year recovering abandoned shopping trolleys from Scotland’s 137-mile canal network. Stacked one on top of the other, the 165 trolleys British Waterways Scotland retrieved in 2008 would exceed the height of the Scottish Parliament twice over.

The humble shopping trolley has for a long time been synonymous with unloved and decaying canals. But in recent years there has been a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of Scotland’s waterways, which are now enjoyed by more than 23 million visitors each year. The supermarkets located close to the canals are still not doing enough to keep their trolleys in their stores and out of the water. In a recent survey 83%* of Scots thought that the supermarkets which own the trolleys should foot the bill to retrieve and return them.

Dr Olivia Lassiere, heritage & environment manager for British Waterways Scotland, comments: “Shopping trolleys are symbolic of the dumb dumping that takes place along our canals every year. The annual cost of recovering the trolleys, which equates to just 1 minute of profit from the UK’s leading retailers** is money that we would otherwise spend on much needed maintenance and repairs to canals in Scotland.

“Whilst some retailers have taken real steps to clean up their act, we still have the problem of dealing with nearly 200 dumped trolleys in our waterways each year. We want to find a solution to this issue and we hope by collecting this data from the public in Scotland we can work with the retailers to eradicate this problem. Supermarket chains should be more responsible for their property and should contribute towards the cost of collecting their dumped trolleys.”

The UK-wide initiative is supported by the Inland Waterways Association (IWA), the leading inland waterways charity. Clive Henderson, chairman of the IWA comments: “The waterways are attractions for the whole community to enjoy. They should be kept free of litter and some of the country’s biggest household names should be doing more to protect the nation’s waterway environment. Abandoned shopping trolleys are unsightly, costly to remove, and spoil the outlook for the millions of people who visit the waterways each year. They also cause costly damage to boats. Removal of these trolleys would also have a wider beneficial effect for the waterways. There is evidence to suggest that an improved environment changes behaviour. So the problem of general littering, dumping and other antisocial behaviour might well reduce as a result of trolley removal.”

In addition to the launch of the Trolley Hotline, British Waterways has written to each of the main retailers around the UK asking them to enter into a not-for-profit cost recovery agreement for shopping trolleys that British Waterways recovers on their behalf.

Members of the public can log a sighting of an abandoned trolley in their local canal by phoning the Trolley Hotline on 01923 201120 or visiting www.britishwaterways.co.uk/trolley.

* Opinion Research carried out an online poll of 1,991 British adults from Wednesday 28th to Friday 30th January 2009. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria. www.opinium.co.uk

** Based on annual profits of Tesco (Apr ’08), Sainsbury’s (May ’08), Morrisons (March ’08) and Asda (2007)

Trolley hotspot areas in Scotland:

Ruchill on the Glasgow branch of the Forth & Clyde Canal
Clydebank on the Forth & Clyde Canal
Wester Hailes on the Union Canal

UK Stats

3,000 trolleys dumped in UK canals
£150,000 – UK wide cost to recover trolleys
18 minutes of profit from the UK’s leading retailers to pay for the removal of disregarded trolleys

About British Waterways Scotland

Responsibility for inland waterways in Scotland is a devolved matter, with funding for British Waterways' Scottish activities coming from the Scottish Government. In Scotland the 137-mile (220km) canal network includes the Caledonian, Crinan, Forth & Clyde, Union and Monkland canals.

British Waterways Scotland works in partnerships with local authorities, voluntary groups, private companies and other government agencies to protect and enhance the waterways and benefit the communities through which they run.

The organisation balances the conservation of the country’s heritage and environment with developing commercial opportunities to generate income to reinvest in the waterways for further sustainable regeneration.

Millions of people enjoy Scotland’s inland waters for recreational activity, sports and leisure. Safety is British Waterway’s top priority. Water safety advice and information on the safe use of Scotland’s canals – both on water and waterside – can be found on our websites.

www.BritishWaterways.co.uk - www.Waterscape.com
www.ScottishCanals.co.uk - www.TheFalkirkWheel.co.uk