Community Spotlight: P-Town Litter Pickers

This month, we sat down with Cheryl, founder of the P-Town Litter Pickers, as she explains how she cleans up the small town of Pahrump, Nevada one bag at a time with NDOT's Adopt-A-Highway Program.

Tell us a little about the P-Town Litter Pickers and how it got started.

I had been volunteering with another group in town, but they focused mostly on the desert and public land. I saw a need for litter control on the roadways around town and along the highway, and nobody was really addressing that. So I started P-Town Litter Pickers and signed us up through the Nevada Department of Transportation's Adopt a Highway program. We adopted eight miles of highway, and NDOT provides the bags, the vests, and the hats. We fill out a little piece of paperwork per person and do an annual renewal. It's been a great arrangement.

I also approached our town manager directly and said, hey, NDOT does this for us on the highway. Can we work out something similar for in town? He was completely on board. Nye County Public Works now provides bags for our town cleanups, and when we're done I send a quick email and they come haul the bags to the landfill. It's simple, it works, and I don't have to deal with dump runs or maintain any equipment.

How often do you hold cleanups?

Once a week, every Wednesday, for one hour. In the summertime, we go out at 6 AM to beat the heat. As we get closer to fall we'll shift to 7 AM, and in winter we'll go at 8. My group is flexible and we adjust with the seasons. In the Nevada desert, if you're not out there early in the summer, you're in trouble.

What does volunteering mean to you personally?

Doing something good for the community. I'm not in it for recognition or awards. I just want to feel good about what we're doing. When people honk and wave at us while we're out there working, that makes me happy. And when I drive down a street we cleaned up and it still looks good months later, that's the reward right there.

What kind of feedback have you gotten from the community?

All positive. People thank us on Facebook, our local news station reposts my weekly updates and has been one of our biggest supporters. We also just got a spot in a local magazine under the volunteer section, which we're hoping brings in some new faces. The public works team has been wonderful too. If I report a mattress or a couch, they take care of it within a couple of days. They're genuinely appreciative of what we do.

Have you noticed any changes in the areas you've cleaned?

We just finished our first full rotation of all eight miles, so it's still early to draw big conclusions on the highway. A couple of the stretches we adopted go right out toward the landfill, so there's always going to be debris blowing off trucks and trailers. But in town, after public works cleared out several mattresses and couches that had been illegally dumped, I haven't really seen that kind of dumping come back. The county also just reversed a fee that had been charging residents for large bulky items at the landfill, which I think will help a lot. When that fee went into effect, stuff started showing up on roadsides almost immediately, which is no surprise.

What are the most common types of litter you find?

On the highway, most of it appears to blow off trucks and trailers rather than being thrown intentionally. But we do find intentional littering too. There's one street near town where someone keeps throwing out a half-drunk Pepsi bottle stuffed with cigarette butts. It's consistent and repeated, so it's definitely intentional.

We also find a huge number of those miniature liquor bottles. One volunteer in another group tracked over 1,300 of them in a single year just on his street. We find thousands of them. And out in the desert areas, firework debris is a big one since fireworks are legal and widely sold here. People set them off on the dry lake bed, which is fine, but then they leave the boxes and plastic canisters behind.

How do you think communities can reduce litter before it happens?

Making the landfill accessible and affordable is a big one, and we saw proof of that here when dumping increased almost immediately after the bulky item fees went into effect. Enforcing load coverage laws would also make a real difference on the highways, but that comes down to resources and manpower. A deposit system on fireworks could help cut down on that debris too, as well as reducing the availability of those tiny liquor bottles would go a long way, because so many of them are clearly being consumed in vehicles then just tossed out the window when they're done.

How do proper tools make a difference for your group?

We wouldn't get nearly as much done without them. Without grabbers, you're bending over constantly and people would be worn out in ten minutes. For us specifically, the squeezy tongs have been the right choice because of our terrain. We have mesquite, creosote, Russian tumbleweed, all kinds of vegetation with thorns and prickly leaves. The traditional claw grabber tends to get stuck when you're trying to pull something out of a sticker bush. The squeezy tongs go straight in and come straight back out. That's why we love them.

What advice would you give someone thinking about joining their first cleanup?

Just get out of the house. That's the first step. If you don't have gear, don't let that stop you. We'll loan you a vest and a grabber. We're not hiking miles and miles. It's walking, picking things up, getting a little light exercise. The bags get heavy, but there's always someone there to help tie them off or carry them. It's as easy or as involved as you want it to be.

What are your goals for the future of P-Town Litter Pickers?

More volunteers, mostly. We usually get 8 to 10 people on a regular Wednesday, and up to 15 when our snowbirds are back in town for the fall and winter. If we had more people, we could adopt more sections of highway. We're not trying to bite off more than we can chew, but the dream is to keep growing until the whole town is covered.

What advice would you give someone thinking about starting their own group?

Just do it, and don't overthink it. Go to your town manager or local government and make the case. Tell them what you need and what you can offer in return. Most local governments don't have the staff to address litter, and they're happy to have a community group take it on with a little basic support.

The Adopt a Highway program is a great starting point too. Most states have one, and they make it very easy. I asked NDOT for more bags because once a week meant I was burning through them fast, and they said fine, here are 200. They've even added a supply location closer to town so I don't have to drive as far. People will work with you if you ask.

To follow along with P-Town Litter Pickers and find out how to get involved, check out their Facebook page.