A white mountain appeared next to the Recreation Center in Western Springs Saturday. As if making a pilgrimage to it, cars were lined up on Walker Street, Hillgrove and Hampton avenues, approaching the parking lot where drivers could unload their offerings.
Western Springs was hosting its first Styrofoam collection in about six months and the hundreds of people who turned out showed how many conscientious recyclers live in the area.
Some Western Springs residents just walked from their homes carrying bags of Styrofoam take-out food containers, egg cartons and packing material for recycling, but other people drove over from La Grange, La Grange Park, Indian Head Park, Oak Brook, Darien, Willowbrook, Elmhurst and Oak Park.
Wendy Vichick, a member of the Community Green Team, polled the drivers as they pulled up to the Recreation Center garage and learned they lived in 27 different towns. She counted at least 412 vehicles during the collection Saturday morning, which continued past its scheduled noon end time, because of the number of cars.
“People have saved their Styrofoam all summer,” said Sue Klein, who co-chaired the collection.
The next collection is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon Nov. 7 at the Recreation Center, at 1500 Walker St., Western Springs.
The Green Team, a group of volunteers from the First Congregational Church of Western Springs, initiated monthly collections of Styrofoam, which is the trademark for polystyrene, on a trial basis in October 2017.
“Part of our congregational philosophy is to take care of the earth and be environmentally responsible,” Vichick said. In the beginning, the volunteers rented a box truck to take the collected polystyrene to Dart Container Corp. in North Aurora, which recycles the material.
The response was so good, Dart started sending its own 54-foot trailer truck to Western Springs to haul away the discarded material, Klein said. Clean Styrofoam food containers and blocks used in packing are accepted, but no packing peanuts.
“The reason we do this is because Styrofoam never breaks down (naturally),” Vichick said.
Rebecca Moore of Hinsdale was a regular at the monthly collections until they stopped during the pandemic. She is committed to recycling and has taken Styrofoam directly to Dart’s facility in North Aurora.
“I compost and do all that,” Moore said. “I even recycle the tag off my tea bags.”
“I’m so grateful for this,” said Barb Nolan of Clarendon Hills, who used to come monthly. “I believe in saving the earth,” she said.
She had been saving her Styrofoam cups and other products in a corner of her kitchen for recycling, but the pile got too big and she had to move it to the garage, she said.
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The collection was designed to be contact free with the drivers unlocking their trunks and rear doors and masked volunteers removing the Styrofoam from the back.
Janet Miller of Orlando, Florida, who was visiting her mother in Western Springs, delivered her mother’s Styrofoam.
“My mother is 90 years old and recycling is incredibly important to her,” Miller said. Her mother kept reminding her the collection was coming up, and Miller, who is in town for about three weeks, put a reminder on her phone, so she wouldn’t forget. She had egg cartons, meat trays and some take-out containers, but not a lot of packing material, Miller said.
Volunteers hustled to unload vehicles and keep the line moving , while others sorted the Styrofoam.
Evelyn Iturralde of La Grange, a student at Lyons Township High School, and a few friends saw the collection on a National Honor Society list of volunteer opportunities during the pandemic.
“I was not expecting this amount of cars,” Iturralde said.
“Neither were they,” said Larry Bloom, a Western Springs resident, who was alongside her, breaking large pieces of Styrofoam into more manageable sizes.
Bloom said he came to drop off his Styrofoam, and when he saw the line of cars, he stayed to help. “I could see they needed volunteers,” Bloom said.
For more information, look at the village website or Dart Container Corp.’s website.
