The Nantucket Take It Or Leave It, affectionately known as the Madaket Mall, will reopen on Wednesday, Nov. 10, town manager Libby Gibson told the Current.
The town has hired three new attendants to staff the facility, which has been closed for nearly two years. The long-awaited reopening will begin as drop-off only, Gibson said, as town officials anticipate a deluge of items from island residents who have been waiting to unload their unwanted items for an extended period.
While the community will likely be celebrating the return of the Take It Or Leave It (TIOLI), there’s almost a sense of dread among some town officials about the reopening.
“There’s a dark side to it,” Gibson said, describing bad behavior at the facility, inappropriate items being dropped-off, sanitary issues, and an escalating amount of resources necessary to manage the program. “There are concerns with the reopening of the facility, and people of a lot of pent-up feelings, and stuff, for the TIOLI that they’re going to be bringing. I’ve used the phrase ‘Niagara Falls’ to describe what we’re expecting.”
The town is exploring the possibility of a police presence at the TIOLI for the first few days of its reopening. Officials are also expecting the need to dedicate additional DPW staff beyond the newly hired attendants to sift through the initial onslaught of drop-off items to weed out things that should have gone to the landfill.
“There are long-term plans to make the facility bigger, to have more staff and make it more secure and safe,” Gibson said. “We definitely want to reuse, reduce, and recycle, and this facility will help with that goal. But you can’t contain Niagara Falls in a tiny little area like that.”
Graeme Durovich, the town’s recycling and solid waste coordinator, said the operation will be run differently when it reopens next month. There will be separate areas designated for “leave it” or “take it” instead of the free-for-all that characterized the traditional mode of operation at the TIOLI. People dropping-off items will be screened for inappropriate items that will be refused – things like prescription drugs and hazardous waste, which are among the many things that have turned up at the TIOLI over the years. There were so many inappropriate items being dropped off, in fact, that the DPW had to take its entire staff every Thursday morning to do “clean outs” of the facility and removed as much as four tons of waste per week from the TIOLI that should not have gone there in the first place.
“It will be different than before,” Durovich told the Select Board earlier this month. “But this is the way we can reopen it.”
The Take It Or Leave It is not just a feel-good venture for the town that is being sustained simply for the sake of tradition, Durovich said. With the town’s existing contract with the municipal landfill operator Waste Options coming to an end in four years, the Select Board and town administration is taking a hard look at the future of solid waste management on the island.
“The Take It Or Leave It is another big portion of solid waste management and the future of solid waste, particular in light of our goals of sustainability locally, as well as the state’s goals for municipalities and businesses,” Durovich said. “We’re excited the TIOLI is finally coming back soon. But there will be significant changes to the operation that make it safer, cleaner and more sustainable both environmentally, socially as well as fiscally.”
