City Launches Pilot Program to Allow Pickup of Abandoned Shopping Carts in Tulsa Right of Ways

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3. City Launches Pilot Program to Allow Pickup of Abandoned Shopping Carts in Tulsa Right-of-Ways

The City of Tulsa, in conjunction with the Tulsa Authority for the Recovery of Energy (TARE), has initiated a pilot program with Shopping Cart Repo to gather abandoned shopping carts in City rights-of-way.

The idea for an abandoned shopping cart collection program was brought to the City of Tulsa by Reasor's grocery store after the grocer saw the impact a similar program was having in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In one month of program operations, the City of Albuquerque was able to receive more than 2,000 shopping carts, prompting the city to keep its program for the long term.

"In Tulsa, we continue to seek new and innovative ways to solve problems, and I'm thankful for retailers like Reasor's who brought this to our attention," Mayor G.T. Bynum said. "I want to thank the TARE board for funding this pilot and I look forward to seeing the impact it will make on our rights-of-way."

Thanks to a $100,000 commitment from TARE to help fund the pilot program, operations will kick off December 2.

Currently, the City of Tulsa's Asset Management Department collects abandoned shopping carts and holds them in a City facility for disposal. Instead of disposing of these shopping carts, grocers will be able to buy them back from Shopping Cart Repo at a much lower cost than having to buy new ones, as is the current case.

It's important to note that no actively attended shopping cart will be collected as part of this program. Any valuable personal belongings (medicines, ID's, etc.) found in abandoned shopping carts in the right-of-way will be given to service providers in an effort to reunite those valuables with their owners.