River clean-up charity strikes deal with e-scooter company

An agreement has been struck to fund the removal of dumped e-scooters from the Brisbane River.

Last month this masthead revealed the high number of devices potentially leaching toxic chemicals into the environment, after repeated denials from providers Lime and Neuron that vandalism was widespread.

Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner confirmed days later Brisbane City Council would require those companies to fund the ongoing clean-up of the city’s waterway.

On Thursday, Ian Thomson, the founder of charity Ocean Crusaders, which removes waste from waterways across the state, confirmed a deal had been struck with Lime.

Under the terms, the scooter provider is funding and providing volunteers for ongoing removals from the river beginning on November 4.

Lime has also offered to pay a fixed fee for each scooter the charity retrieves and returns on its own.

“Over and above the offer to pay Ocean Crusaders per bike or scooter retrieved, Lime will also be hiring out Ocean Crusaders’ boat and sending a full team of their own volunteers for the dedicated clean-up, with plans to repeat this regularly,” a Lime spokesperson said.

Thomson said significantly more Lime scooters ended up in the river than Neuron scooters, but an agreement with Neuron for a similar pay-per-scooter-collection model was progressing.

A spokesperson for Neuron said discussions with Ocean Crusaders were ongoing.

“They’ve both come to the party and that’s a good thing,” Thomson said.

“It’s been a positive response from both companies. It’s costing them money to lose them … no one wants them in the water.”

Thomson said there had been discussions about expanding arrangements to other towns and cities across the country.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said in September he understood both providers had been open to negotiate: “They understand this is not the right place to store scooters, and they want to see a clean Brisbane River.”

Low tides in August revealed dozens of submerged e-scooters just around the banks of the river in the CBD.

At the time, Ocean Crusaders revealed it had collected about 150 devices over the past year from the same area, as well as high numbers of rental bikes, shopping trolleys and polystyrene helmets.

University of Sydney water expert Professor Stuart Khan said the lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt and manganese in modern e-scooter batteries presented potential ecological risks.

“The concerns are mostly around the organisms that live at the bottom of the waterway close to the sediment where these chemicals accumulate … things like insects, snails, worms, potentially crayfish, and all sorts of macroinvertebrates,” he said.

“You can imagine if this is something that we’re doing over a period of decades, we would expect to see elevated concentrations.”

Khan said there were macro-environmental concerns down the food chain, and identified other risks associated with large foreign objects cluttering river systems.

“It’s a real shame to have people treating any kind of mined product that has a significant environmental footprint in a way that doesn’t lead to sustainable long-term use.”

Western Sydney University water scientist Ian Wright added metals could leach from even waterproofed batteries over time.

“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,” he said.

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