More than 750 cars showed up at Downers Grove's Belmont Train Station lot Saturday, Sept. 19, for a recycling drive. Greener Grove's second annual Recycling Extravaganza collected electronics, textiles, medications and more during the three-hour event.
The turnout, first reported by Blueprint, blew past the group's original goal of 500 vehicles, set during the event's inaugural run in 2025.
"We were really shocked by how many people came last year … the first year," co-founder Louise Kelly told Blueprint at the event. "Our communication mechanism is working."
Greener Grove, a Downers Grove-based sustainability education group, organized the drive with the Village of Downers Grove and SCARCE (School & Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education), an Addison-based environmental education nonprofit that has operated for more than 35 years. The collection ran from 9 a.m. to noon at Parking Lot H, 5000 Belmont Road.
Residents brought electronics, personal documents for shredding, prescription medications, EpiPens, syringes, furniture, bicycles, books, eyeglasses, hearing aids, medical equipment and clothing, according to a DuPage County events listing. Fees applied to some electronics.
Sarah Karrow, the event's organizer, named electronics, textiles and medicine as items people often do not know how to dispose of properly. She said the drive gives residents a way to keep those materials out of landfills.
"People have an out of sight, out of mind mentality, so once people throw it away, people don't think about the impact of how long that piece of trash stays in our environment," Karrow told Blueprint.
Kelly said Greener Grove started about four years ago as a group of residents who were activists at the village council. The group now partners with the village, she said, because both sides share the same goal. Since its founding, the group says it has helped Downers Grove join the Greenest Region Compact, establish an active Environmental Concerns Commission, create a sustainability plan and hire a dedicated Sustainability Coordinator, according to Greener Grove's website.
The group has several upcoming events open to Downers Grove residents:
- Saturday, Oct. 3 — Halloween Costume Shop, 9:30–11:30 a.m. at O'Neill Middle School
- Wednesday, Oct. 21 — Ticketed author event with Ruth Spiro, 6 p.m. at Anderson's Bookshop
- Tuesday, Oct. 27 — Monthly meeting, 7 p.m. at Lincoln Center, Room 503
- Thursday, Dec. 3 — Holiday party, 7 p.m. at Alter Brewing; ticketed event
