Goose caught fly tipping

Well it is a goose! aint it?

So what is the purpose of to days Blog? well it is sort of a high horse thing, an extract from an article of mine appearing in Britain and Europe under the guise of Environmental duty of retail groups.

Trolley Splash!

Take a walk along one of the counties thousands of waterways, Canal, Streams, Brooks or Rivers and it would not take long before you would find dumped in the water the left over, s of either a night out on the town and used for a free ride down hill! To much shopping to carry? Or just plain stolen, Supermarket trolley.

In one English town over 150 a month go missing but the figures from the major sales outlets must be much higher, for example in 2004 Tescos in Nottingham lost over 800 trolley’s and at £100 pounds plus to replace it is costing this one store thousands of pounds a year, ASDA in Wrexham during 2006 lost around 50 per week, Another store in Derby was losing 550 a year. So multiply by the stores in the country you start to get a picture of just how large this problem is through out the country.

One of the odd things is that when you do find one, it is, or seems to be in the middle of nowhere and no reason for it to be there! A walk around some of the better-known waters in the Telford area revealed a total of 6 rusting carcasses.

The recovery return and or disposal of these trolleys is currently born by the local authority and various agencies including the Environment Agency and environmental groups who have largely shouldered the costs but, local councillors do not believe this is a sustainable cost and that firms identified as owners of the recovered trolleys should be billed for the costs incurred in clearing them away. And under new legislation costs will be passed on.

This misuse and abandonment of these trolleys can do serious damage to our watercourses, during heavy rain they can act as traps for debris and speed up the possibility of flooding.
Supermarkets, business's and environmental organisations found that there was an acceptance that local authorities should not be responsible for the costs for collecting abandoned trolleys.


In 2006 ASDA in Wrexham invested £80,000 in a RF controlled braking system to thwart the lose of their trolleys, and ASDA as a whole spent an estimated £2.4 million on this type of system in 2002 this delay in the Wrexham installation would have meant a lose over the years of a staggering £26000. If the roll out of these systems in indicative of all stores in the ASDA chain then the losses must be horrendous.

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So why do I place this here? well really to point out that even thought they are left all over the place the impact on wildlife is minimal, in fact one photograph (recently sold so cannot reproduce) of a Water vole sitting on top of an abandoned trolley happily tucking in to some otherwise unreachable vegetation. A Kingfisher has frequently used the trolley in the shot above as a perch as it patrolled the waters edge, sadly not seen when I have had the camera ready!!! In one Welsh waterway a group of rare Crayfish were found after a long absence breeding in the detritus caught inside the mesh. So it goes to show, eyesore they are, cash loss to stores they are, but no great impact on the wildlife. I suppose that is why the one in the picture above has been there for at least eight years!!!


Ok so a few pictures from recent outings:



Ripe or not?Go away or I will bite your bottom!!!

And go it did, minus a few tail feathers.

So if you find one of these ubiquitous items watch it, and see just what it is being used by.
Thanks for the visit see you again. OH! if you have comment an anything drop it in the Guest book, I promise to reply, but keep it clean please.

Paul