Supermarket giants apologise after trolleys fished out of River Forth in clean-up

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A dedicated group of volunteers from Stirling and Falkirk Canoe Club took to the River Forth to clear away more than 20 shopping trolleys last weekend in an effort to improve the region’s waterways.The volunteers focused on hotspots around three bridges across the length of the Forth, with a pair of the hotspots being located near the Tesco and Sainsbury’s supermarkets in Stirling.Across a gruelling four hours, the hardy group managed to recover 23 trolleys, as well as seven bikes and other associated debris from the river – with some trolleys remaining in the water to be cleared up.One of those volunteers, James Fleming, has written and delivered letters to both the Tesco supermarket in Wallace Street and the Drip Road Sainsbury’s, but claims he has yet to receive a response.In one of those letters, Mr Fleming writes: “We couldn’t recover all the trolleys and plan to return, likely next summer, to retrieve the rest.“Alongside the trolleys, the group also picked up other items of waste left by the riverside, including seven bikes and other debris such as traffic cones.

Although the work was difficult, it was highly rewarding to use our skills to clean up an eyesore that has worsened over the years with more trolleys being thrown into the river.”Mr Fleming has called on Tesco – where most of the trolleys have been recovered from – to implement a more effective preventative effort to avoid trolleys being taken out of the store.A Sainsbury’s spokesperson told the Observer it had measures in place to prevent trolley dumping at the store, including the use of a coin/token operated locking system on trolleys.