The carbon footprint of collecting and refurbishing abandoned shopping trolleys is the equivalent of flying from London to New York and back twice, new research from WMG at the University of Warwick has found.
According to the research, which used data from trolley producer Wanzl, more than 520,000 shopping trolleys are reported as abandoned each year in the UK, despite retailers introducing measures to prevent trolleys from leaving their premises, such as coin slots and wheel-locking mechanisms.
‘Significant and concerning’
“Thousands of shopping trolleys are reported as abandoned in the UK every year,” commented Dr Neill Raath, assistant professor at WMG, University of Warwick, who led the research. “When you multiply the carbon impact of retrieving each one, it becomes both significant and concerning.”
The research examined the use of shopping trolleys in Coventry, including those left near Cannon Park Shopping Centre and the University campus. It took into account the entire life cycle of a trolley, from production and use to abandonment, collection, and disposal.
It found that some 30 trolleys a week were collected from around Coventry, by diesel-powered commercial collection services, with around 100 each year sent for refurbishment and regalvanisation.
Collection accounted for around 1% of the trolleys’ overall environmental impact, with refurbishment accounting for 8%. The majority of the environmental impact of each trolley is accounted for by the manufacturing process, due to the energy-intensive production of steel.
As the researchers noted, if the data is extrapolated out to national scale across the UK, the annual collection of abandoned trolleys could emit around 343 tonnes of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the yearly emissions of 80 petrol cars. Refurbishing 10% of these trolleys would nearly double those emissions.
The analysis also indicated that between 92% and 99% of environmental impact can be avoided when trolleys are collected and refurbished rather than discarded.
Think again
“While it is unlikely that we can ever stop trolleys being abandoned, we hope that next time people see a trolley in an alley or park bush, they’ll consider the environmental impact of letting it go unused,” Raath added.
The full report, entitled The Environmental Impact of Collecting and Processing Abandoned Shopping Trolleys in the UK, was published in the journal Sustainability and can be found here.
