A magnet fisherman who pulls rubbish and scrap from waterways across Newport and Gwent is disgusted at the amount of shopping trollies he has found recently.

Darren Rice, from Bettws, started magnet fishing as a hobby three years ago, and since then has helped clear many rivers and canals of all sorts of rubbish.

The Argus reported this week that Asda in Duffryn and Pill are currently facing a shortage of shopping trollies for customers to use.

The supermarket say there are more trollies on the way and appologised to customers for the inconvemience.

Darren believes that the trolley shortage is due to people dumping them in reens and canals around Newport instead of returning them to the store.

South Wales Argus: Darren RiceDarren Rice (Image: Darren Rice)

Abandoned ASDA shopping trollies on the side of the road. Picture: Darren Rice 

He said: “It’s disgusting how many trollies end up in the reans in and around Duffryn, so many people are dumping them into the waterways without a care in the world.

“Shopping trollies are the supermarkets responsibility, its up to them to make sure trollies are collected and people are stopped taking them off site.

“You have got some people who cant afford a taxi, who walk home with the shopping trolley with their shopping in and them dumping them because they can’t be bothered to take them back. It's disgusting.”

Last year ten to twenty trollies, along with other items such as rubbish or bikes, were pulled from canals by Darren and his team. In the past week five or six trollies were pulled from the reens in Duffryn by the team.

South Wales Argus: Darren RiceDarren Rice (Image: Darren Rice)

A dirty trolley is pulled from a river. Picture: Darren Rice 

Its not just in Duffryn trollies are found in waterways, but the Cwmbran and Usk River still have trollies in them from years ago.

Mr Rice told the Argus he does magnet fishing to help the environment and improve the cleanliness of the waterways.

He added: “In Duffryn it is getting a lot worse, one week you are pulling them out from the reens and then by the following week there are more.

South Wales Argus: Darren RiceDarren Rice (Image: Darren Rice)

Neil Griffiths pulls an asda trolley from the reens in duffryn. Picture: Darren Rice

“Managers from stores have given me a £5 store voucher, but its not about that as I want to help the environment.

“Its laziness to dump them in the water, its shocking as it doesn’t take long to take them back to the shop. I have only found one or two with pound coin slots, all the others have been normal.”