The Great Shopping Cart Rescue! Rockland County is 170 shopping carts cleaner this week thanks to Keep Rockland Beautiful (KRB) volunteers!

Donna Drygas, a long-time Nanuet resident and dedicated volunteer who has participated in and organized dozens of litter cleanups in Nanuet, has been trying to find a solution to the shopping cart problem for years…even going so far as to load carts into her own van and return them to stores. After speaking with several of the stores, and being told that they don’t have trucks or personnel to collect their stolen carts, she and KRB Board of Directors member and volunteer litter cleaner extraordinaire, Tom Kyle came up with a plan. The first week of August Donna and Tom surveyed behind the various shopping malls on Route 59 from the Palisades Parkway to Spring Valley Plaza and identified roughly 150 carts that were abandoned.

Tom then spoke with almost every store manager about the carts, before deciding the best approach was to clean and return them to the stores. In all cases KRB volunteers cleaned and disposed of the garbage and recycling that was in the carts so they were returned litter free. Pathmark, Stop & Shop, Target, Walgreens, and Home Goods all wanted the broken carts back since they have vendors that use them to repair other carts. Walgreens, Home Goods, Stop and Shop, and Rockland Farms were especially appreciative since they each have lost over 100 carts in the last year…at $60 per cart, that’s over $6000 worth of carts. Some of the recovered carts had been missing for over 5 years! KRB asked only in return that the stores with recycling machines add recycling bins in their bottle rooms so that rejected deposit bottles or non-deposit bottles could be recycled. Stop & Shop, always supportive of KRB is working with corporate to get the program in place for all stores. 

With the help of a donated U-Haul truck, Keep Rockland Beautiful volunteers Tom and Donna and Renu, gathered up a total of 170 abandoned shopping carts in Nanuet this week and returned them to their owners: ToysRUs(5), Bed Bath and Beyond(3), TJ Maxx(3), Target(13),

Christmas Tree Shop(4), Stop & Shop(32), AC Moore(15), Big Lots(18), Home Goods(16), Pathmark(15), BabiesRUs(3), Costco(3), All Fresh(3), Walgreens(15), Pet Smart(4), ShopRite New City(1), Marshals(2), Petco(4), Sears(2), CVS(2).

Six carts(metal and plastic) that were beyond salvation were brought to Teplitz.

The following areas were cleared: Stop & Stop, Pathmark and all of the stores in the Pathmark Plaza, behind BabiesRUs, Kohls, ToysRUs and the entire back of Rockland Plaza, Sears shopping center, Rockland Farmers Market Orchard Street, the bus stop at College and Rt 59 and the back of Spring Valley Plaza.

Many thanks to Nanuet U-Haul manager, Erick Deroches for donating a truck for this and future cart cleanups!  Future cleanups to focus on Spring Valley, Monsey, New City, West Nyack and Pearl River. Please join KRB as a member and as a volunteer!

Keep Rockland Beautiful, Inc. (KRB)is a non-profit affiliate of Keep America Beautiful. Our mission is to promote a cleaner, more beautiful county. Through partnerships and strategic alliances with citizens, businesses and government, Keep Rockland Beautiful’s programs motivate thousands of volunteers annually to clean up, beautify and improve their neighborhoods, thereby creating healthier, safer and more livable community environments. In addition to the signature cleanup event, the Great American Cleanup, Keep Rockland Beautiful organizes environmental education events in schools, promotes litter law enforcement, and supports public art and beautification activities.  For more information, call 845 708-9164 or fax to 845 708-9165, write Keep Rockland Beautiful, 120-126 N. Main St., New City, NY 10956,

visit www.KeepRocklandBeautiful.org, like us on Facebook at

Keep Rockland Beautiful