Низкий уровень воды в реке Брисбен обнажил десятки брошенных электросамокатов

Low tide reveals Brisbane River’s dirty little secret August’s low tides have revealed dozens of submerged e-scooters dumped from the banks of the Brisbane River, shedding light on an environmental challenge usually obscured by muddy water. Between the Story Bridge and QUT Gardens Point ferry terminal in Brisbane’s CBD, this masthead photographed devices built for Lime, Neuron and former provider Beam in various degrees of decay. Operators have long played down the problem, saying vandalism is rare in the city. But the organisation Ocean Crusaders, which cleans up waterways across south-east Queensland, said it had collected about 150 e-scooters in the past year just from the water near the CBD. Founder Ian Thomson told this masthead the river was cluttered with more junk than many people realised, and deeper areas were likely rife with waste. “Scooters love jumping in the water in the evenings,” he said. “Every time we go through on a low tide, we’re picking up … the things. “They’re a pest, and obviously the lithium-ion batteries are no good for the environment.” Thomson said the organisation also frequently found rental bikes and shopping trolleys underwater, as well as huge numbers of 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. “I think there’s also the issue of just the resources that go into manufacturing lithium-ion batteries and e-scooters,” he said. “The idea that we would produce these, use them for a very short period of time, and dispose of them into the environment … it’s just a huge waste. “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.” Ocean Crusaders – which is largely funded through grants – has a huge collection of waterlogged scooter batteries stored in a private shed because they cannot be put in general waste or recycled. Thomson said the easiest fix in Brisbane would be to erect more barriers along the river, particularly underneath the Riverside Expressway, which he identified as the worst spot for scooter dumping. “It’s got to be down to Brisbane City Council, they’re making money out of these scooters,” he said. “There also has to be a component of [funding for their] clean-up, or a responsibility back to the scooter companies to clean up. “Putting up a physical barrier would be amazing … I don’t know why they wouldn’t, apart from cost.” Brisbane City Council would not reveal the value of its scooter contracts with Neuron and Lime, but confirmed there was a cap of 7100 scooters operating at any time in the city. It said cleaning up was the operators’ responsibility, and noted the land under the Riverside Expressway was state-owned. “E-scooter providers are responsible for the management and retrieval of their devices,” a statement said. The two companies played down the problem when contacted for comment. They said vandalism was rare in Brisbane, and declined to provide tracking data or information on how many devices had been written off. They added scooter batteries were designed to be waterproof, their teams collected them when they could, and geofencing technology and no-parking areas had been rolled out to make dumping harder. A Neuron spokesperson said: “This approach has proved effective, and we have found that the overwhelming majority of riders and community members are responsible and respectful.” A Lime spokesperson said: “We remind Brisbane residents and visitors that our vehicles are widely used for convenient, low-cost, sustainable transportation, and vandalising them in this way only hurts people’s ability to get around.” Those with knowledge of the agreement said the council made just over $5 million from e-mobility companies last financial year. Western Sydney University water scientist Ian Wright said metals could leach from even waterproofed batteries over time, which present a known danger to the environment. “Lithium is definitely dangerous … it can be toxic to aquatic life, and the Brisbane River already has enough challenges with urban runoff, sewerage [and] farmland,” he 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.” The providers said they took cases of vandalism to Queensland Police, who were also contacted for comment. Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.