SACRAMENTO, Calif. — This week, two Sacramento city councilmembers announced a plan to hold business owners accountable for stolen or abandoned shopping carts.
"I've been pulling shopping carts out of the water for a couple of decades now," said Crystal Tobias, president of the Sacramento Area Creeks Council.
Tobias has witnessed firsthand the problems caused by people dumping shopping carts into Sacramento waterways.
The Sacramento Area Creeks Council, which partners with the River City Waterway Alliance for cleanup, has removed more than 800 carts from local waterways since January 2023.
"When a shopping cart is in a waterway like Steelhead Creek or some of the smaller creeks, there is an invasive species that's called water primrose. What happens is the water primrose will grow all around the shopping cart and up it and through it, and it makes these islands," said Tobias.
She says the islands become barriers to the salmon and steelhead trout trying to spawn.
She's backing the Shopping Carts Retention Plan proposed this week by Sacramento city councilmembers Lisa Kaplan and Karina Talamantes.
It would require businesses to add anti-theft and disabling devices on all shopping carts. They would also be required to label all shopping carts with their name, address and phone number.
The California Grocers Association says this brings up concerns.
"In this instance, it's shopping carts that are stolen and then subsequently abandoned that this ordinance is looking to deal with. The way it appears the city wants to handle that is penalize the grocer who the crime is being committed against, and kind of heap new burdens on our operations," said Nate Rose.
The new proposal would apply to all businesses throughout the city of Sacramento. They must also add signage saying removing the carts would result in a $100 fine.
If a business does not comply with the measures, they could find themselves with upwards of a $1,000 fine.
Rose says he feels there's a better way to find a solution.
"To find something that makes sense where you know everyone's happy. You know no one wants carts out in the community and abandoned in the community, so I think we're really allies in that regard and need to find a way to achieve some type of partnership around the issue," said Rose.
The California Grocers Association says it's willing to have further conversations with city councilmembers to find better ways to prevent shopping carts from ending up in waterways.
ABC10 reached out to the office of councilmember Lisa Kaplan but she was not able to respond Friday.
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