A fond farewell to a litter cart legend

Nolan Duff still plans to start his day with a visit to Kelly’s Coffee Cart, but he’ll head there a little later than he has for the past couple of decades.

Nolan, known widely around town as Duffy, hung up his litter grabber last week to mark his retirement from his long service walking the streets with Motueka’s litter cart.

Every weekday morning, he would make a 6am beeline to Kelly’s for his first coffee, before heading out on his litter run.

The route varied, depending on the day, but he would head up towards the police station, or down towards the clocktower, picking up litter as he found it.

The rubbish has not been so bad of late, Nolan reckons.

“Lately it’s been very, very quiet,” he says. “People are learning.”

He has found some treasures over his time.

He came across $30 once, although any wallets or valuables were taken into the police station. He has also stumbled across more than one stash of squirreled-away booze.

“I tell people, if you hide it, and I find it, I’ll drink it,” he laughs.

Nolan is also well known for his involvement in the local rugby scene, volunteering his time to coordinate the flags for games at Sports Park.

He also used to help lock up the facilities and joked that he stopped doing that because he got “sick and tired of hanging about the changing sheds waiting for the players to get tidied up for the girls”.

Nolan is a Motueka local through and through, born and bred, he says.

“I can’t live anywhere else, because this town’s been really good to me over the years.”

There is some uncertainty about just how long Duffy has provided the litter cart service to the community. He quoted 11 years, but members of the community remember him being there much longer than that.

It’s a bit of a compulsion now – even when he’s not on duty, Duffy reckons he can not help but pick up litter.

The job originally came his way via Workbridge, and his wages were paid by Our Town Motueka and the town’s community board, although private businesses have sponsored the cart in the past.

Claire Hutt, who is involved in both organisations, spoke of Nolan with great fondness and respect.

“He’s a community character,” she says.

She confirmed his comments that when he retired, so would the cart.

“We don’t know what the future of the litter cart is,” she says. “We kept doing it for Nolan.”

Nolan calls the litter run his “daily exercise”, although the miserable winter mornings didn’t do his bronchial asthma any good.

“I am going to miss it though,” he says. “Put it this way – I’ve made a lot of good friends down there.”

Duffy celebrated his 65th birthday last week with a bottle of whiskey – purchased, not discovered.