‘It’s a nuisance,’ a new ordinance passed in Pueblo aiming to control abandoned shopping carts

PUBELO — Have you ever seen shopping carts where they don’t belong? The Mayor of Pueblo said abandoned shopping carts are becoming a nuisance across the city. News5 sat down with Mayor Heather Graham this week to discuss her plan on how to fix it.

“I get it, people think it’s stupid about move a shopping cart, but it’s a problem,” Graham said.

Mayor Graham said it is a problem she has been trying to get a hold of since she was on city council.

“I mean, you can pretty much drive anywhere in the city and see shopping carts everywhere,” Graham said.

The mayor’s Chief of Staff, Brian McCai,n said from January 2023 to September 2024, the city collected a total of 4,306 shopping carts. McCain said the cost to replace those shopping carts for stores is between $1 and $1.3 million.

Eleanor Sheahan

The cost for the city to collect, dispose or return shopping carts is anywhere from $24,000 to $50,000 a year, according to McCain. He said some stores in Pueblo are ordering 70 or more carts a month.

“Average price of a shopping cart is $200 to $300, sometimes more,” McCain said.

So what’s Graham’s solution?

“I think the route has to start with where the shopping carts are coming from, the stores. That’s the business’s property, and once it leaves your property and it’s found on somebody else’s property, it’s illegal dumping,” Graham said.

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On Monday, an ordinance was presented to Pueblo City Council. It said businesses with shopping carts in Pueblo must come up with a plan to keep carts on their property.

“The plan that the businesses have to submit will just really keep them on their toes about locking up the carts at night, or making sure that they’re picking them up from the areas outside more frequently, and so they’re not just getting left and then abandoned on public property or private property,” Graham said.

Eleanor Sheahan

Pueblo City Council members expressed a variety of opinions about the ordinance,

“I think we’re moving in the right direction. So, I’m behind that one,” Joe Latino, councilmember said.

Councilwoman Regina Maestri said people who steal carts should be fined, not the stores.

“They can’t apprehend people coming out of their stores stealing groceries. How can they stop them from taking a cart from the lot,” Maestri said. “Who’s keeps getting away with it is the people the theft, the thieves.”

Graham said the solution is not fining the people stealing the carts.

“But, the reality is you can’t ticket the unhoused people for having the shopping carts and think that that’s going to change the problem.”

City Council passed the ordinance four to three on Monday night.

“If the stores are, you know, asked to submit this kind of a plan, I think that they’ll understand, you know, why, like when the city calls on you to come get your carts, and you just say, yeah, no, and then we have to pay to dispose of them at the dump, or… melt them, or whatever we end up doing with them. It becomes a significant cost to the taxpayers to have to do that, and so I think we’re just asking people to be accountable for their own piece of property,” Graham said.

The mayor said a fine amount for each cart the city collects has yet to be decided.

Stores in Pueblo have until December 2026 to submit a plan to the city detailing how they’re going to keep track of their shopping carts in Pueblo.

Eleanor Sheahan

The Aftermath of Homeless Camp Cleanups In Pueblo

The City of Pueblo and the mayor have received both support and pushback about the way they are trying to clean up the steel city. Last week, the city cleared out trash and homeless camps along Fountain Creek.

Support and push back homeless encampments along Fountain Creek in Pueblo were cleared up