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E-scooter providers Beam and Neuron will be ordered to fund and work with a group that specialises in removing debris from the Brisbane River, with about 150 of the devices found dumped underwater in 12 months.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner confirmed the move after Brisbane Times reported on the scale of dumping in the city’s waterway.
“We’ve contacted the operators and said, ‘Look, you’re going to have to do more to make sure where scooters are placed inappropriately, including in the Brisbane River, they are collected’,” he said.
“They’ve indicated they’re willing to work with Ocean Crusaders and develop a partnership and provide some funding to do that, so I think that’s a positive step forward.
“We’re working to keep pressure on those operators to make sure those scooters are retrieved.”
Ocean Crusaders cleans up waterways across south-east Queensland, and collected about 150 e-scooters in the past 12 months submerged off the riverbanks near the Brisbane CBD.
The group is largely funded through private donations and relies on volunteers.
Founder Ian Thomson said the lord mayor’s comments were the first he’d heard of the plan, and neither Beam nor Neuron had contacted him.
“The best solution is never putting scooters in there in the first place, but if they are going to jump in, having [the providers be] responsible for removing them and contracting services like ourselves or similar would be perfect,” he said.
Thomson said it could cost about $120,000 a year to send a clean-up team and boat onto the river every week.
Widespread dumping was laid bare by unusually low tides in early August, with dozens of e-scooters photographed just between the Story Bridge and QUT Gardens Point ferry terminal.
Operators had long played down the problem, saying vandalism was rare in the city. This masthead previously sought tracking and write-off data from the providers and the council.
Experts have reported that lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt and manganese in modern batteries presented potential risks to the river’s ecosystem of aquatic life and plants.
“The Brisbane River already has enough challenges with urban run-off, sewerage [and] farmland,” Western Sydney University water scientist Ian Wright said.
“If you’re getting a whole lot of bikes and batteries ending up in the water, it’s just a risk and an impact that the river doesn’t need.”
Thomson called for more barriers along the river, particularly underneath the Riverside Expressway, which he identified as the worst spot for e-scooter dumping.
Schrinner said this would be considered, but he didn’t think it was necessarily the best solution.
“We’re certainly happy to have a look at that, but I’m not sure that would necessarily stop the problem,” he said.
“I think there are other ways that we can address it that might be more effective, and we also like people to have access to the Brisbane River and to enjoy that riverfront vista without a fence along every section of it.
“We can’t just fence the entire Brisbane River.”
The lord mayor said he believed rental scooters remained a positive for Brisbane.
“We have at some times of the year a very hot and humid climate, and so scooters help fill that gap for people who want to get around without getting too hot and sweaty.”
Lime and Neuron were contacted for comment.
On Tuesday, it emerged police were investigating after 16 e-scooters were dumped in the Brisbane River near the Star Casino.
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