It is possible for shopping carts to cause property damage and endanger the health and safety of local residents if they are left unattended or abandoned on our roads, pathways, parks, or waterways.
Our municipal regulations prohibit bringing shopping carts outside of shopping centers and into public areas with the intention of encouraging merchants to accept responsibility for the carts they rent out to customers.
Retailers are required to print their company name and address on shopping carts that are available for use by clients of their establishment. This enables us to identify the owners of shopping carts in the event that we have to impound them.
A retailer is required to have a containment system in place if they have more than 25 shopping carts available for customer use.
One example of a containment system is:
- a coin or token system that returns the coin or token when clients return the trolley, or
- a perimeter mechanism that locks a trolley wheel if it leaves the shopping center.
Retailers who have fewer than 25 shopping carts in their inventory or who supply carts for transporting commodities such as lumber, hardware, landscaping supplies, or furniture are free from the requirement that they install a containment system.
According to Local Law No. 10 (Public Health) 1999, it is illegal for a person to abandon or leave a shopping trolley unattended in a public location. This is a violation of the law. If you leave a shopping cart behind in a public area, you run the risk of receiving a citation on the spot for the infraction.