by Suzanne Daub
Spring cleaning on Nantucket doesn’t just refer to sweeping away dust and cobwebs that have accumulated throughout the house during the winter months. It also includes several cooperative efforts to tidy-up our island roadsides, beaches, nature preserves, and town.
This week, the Nantucket Clean Team starts up again for the 2024 season, with three clean-ups set for Saturday morning, April 27. At 8 am, volunteers will meet at Washington Street Ext. (by the Handlebar) to clean downtown and at the corner of Milestone and Nobadeer Farm roads to clean along Milestone Road. At 9 am that same Saturday, the Clean Team is encouraging volunteers to head to Jetties Beach to join the Cape Cod Surfrider Foundation for a beach cleanup.
The weekend after Daffy Weekend—from 6 am on Saturday, May 4 until 12 noon on Sunday, May 5—the fifth annual Nantucket Litter Derby will add some friendly competition and fun to an outdoor spring cleaning that ends in a celebratory gathering and rewards ceremony at Cisco Brewery on Sunday at 4 pm.
The “woman behind the curtain” for the Nantucket Litter Derby is island resident Leah Mojer, who is quick to credit the town for their help with “day-of operations and set-up.” She defines the mission of this island event as “to raise awareness, foster teamwork, inspire friendly competition, and promote a sense of shared responsibility for keeping the island’s roadsides, beaches, and wild spaces litter-free.”
This event was scheduled during early April during the first four years it was held, but the date was moved to May for 2024, Leah explained, because “the beginning of April is often very stormy” here, plus several holidays in April can interfere with participation.
The Litter Derby is held across two days, Mojer explained, to give it a “builtin rain date. Last year, it poured all day on one of the days…[teams] don’t have to do it for two days, but if you are feeling competitive you might want to do both…And there’s something about it that is addicting when you can see your positive effect on the environment.”
Teams can have up to six individuals and are responsible for their own supplies (gloves, grabbers, and trash bags). They also choose what areas of Nantucket they want to tidy-up. Last year 22 teams competed. At press time, the 2024 signup has already exceeded 20 teams: several repeat competitors and many new teams. “Two are fifth-year teams, and there are a couple of four-year teams” [signed up for 2024], Mojer said. Sign-up is free and open through May 3 at nantucketlitterderby.com.
After 1 pm on Sunday, May 5, trash collection drop-off will be held at the Nantucket Waste Facility. Volunteers will be available to help sort, and there’s usually music during the weigh-in.
To date, Litter Derby teams have removed from our environment 64,000 pounds of litter! During past years during this event, teams have wrestled a variety of items—large and small, heavy and light—out of the environment. For safety reasons, weight of items picked up for this event are capped at 50 pounds.
At 4 pm on Sunday, Litter Derby teams and organizers will gather at Cisco Brewers. First place winners get a $1,000 cash prize, and second- and third-place prizes will also be awarded.
“If you going to pick up trash for just one day: do it this day because Town employees are devoting their day off—a Sunday—for this to be super-efficient,” Mojer said. “The Town does it for everyone’s benefit…With everyone working together, a lot gets done…it’s very efficient.”
