Clean Up The Rock: Third Annual Litter Derby This Weekend

Spring cleaning takes on a whole new meaning this weekend as the third annual Nantucket Litter Derby swings into action.

More than 36 teams of people will fan out across the island on Saturday and Sunday to gather trash in a fun and competitive event that aims to put a dent in the amount of garbage strewn around Nantucket, while raising awareness and bringing the community together.

The team that gathers the most trash by noon on Sunday will win a $1,000 cash prize, while the second- and third-place teams will take home gift bags provided by event sponsors.

Last year, 50 teams combined to gather more than 18 tons of trash, or 36,050 pounds of litter. That included 200 pounds of nips, 150 tires, 11,700 pounds of scrap metal, hundreds of masks, and one 1967 Chevy truck.

The good news was that 18 tons of trash was removed from the island. The bad news was that there was 18 tons of trash out there to begin with.

Litter Derby creator Leah Mojer said the event has several aims beyond just cleaning up Nantucket. It’s about bringing the community together, raising awareness about the problem of litter around the island, while also gathering data on the location of garbage hotspots and the types of refuse being found.

“The unintended but wonderful consequence is that it’s a dataset that we’re gathering every year of what the problems actually are,” Mojer said. “If all this garbage is back and we get another 18 tons then we really have something to say.”

The concept for the Nantucket Litter Derby was born as Mojer would drive to work and back along Hummock Pond Road. It was a route that she never remembered seeing garbage on during her younger days on the island. But in recent years, she noticed, it was simply trashed.

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was just this plastic bag on a tree on Madaket Road,” Mojer said. “It was there for a week, and everyone just passed by - ‘it’s not mine, not my job.’ The garbage was becoming wallpaper for the island.”

She began talking to friends who shared her passion for Nantucket about how to bring people together to assess the burden that was being created with so much litter. Those conversations evolved into the Nantucket Litter Derby.

“It was a way to kill a bunch of birds with one stone: raise awareness, clean up, and have some team spirit and a fun event around something that’s not so fun,” she said.

The rules are simple: teams of up to six people gather litter anytime on Saturday and through noon on Sunday. They then drop-off their loads at the recycling center at the landfill for a weigh-in on Sunday afternoon.

“It’s not meant to be a scary thing, but to just normalize picking up someone else’s trash,” Mojer said. “Pick something up for nothing. If you don't like to see it and have pride in your town, there's no finger pointing, you just pick it up because you want to see your island and neighborhood clean.”

There’s still time to sign-up for this year’s Nantucket Litter Derby. Hit this link and fill out the form, and then we’ll see you out there this weekend. Team Nantucket Current will be hitting it hard.