Our commitment to a cleaner, greener Bensenville
Grand Subaru’s community eco efforts focus on making it easier for Bensenville residents to recycle more, waste less, and protect local green spaces. We combine an in-store recycling center, hands-on cleanups, and tree-planting support so everyday choices—like dropping off batteries or joining a park cleanup—have a visible impact.
As a long-time Bensenville neighbor at 125 W. Grand Ave., Grand Subaru has always believed that a dealership should do more than sell and service vehicles. That’s why we embraced the Subaru Loves the Earth® initiative and the Eco Friendly Retailer Program, which encourage retailers to reduce waste, conserve resources, and support local conservation. For us, that means turning our showroom into a convenient hub for community recycling and environmental action.
Nationally, Subaru and its retailers have partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to give away tens of thousands of regionally appropriate trees each year, strengthening local neighborhoods with more shade, cleaner air, and cooler streets. Arbor Day Foundation reports that since 2025, Subaru and its retailers have helped provide 165,000 trees to communities across the country. Those trees will help filter water, capture carbon, and support healthier outdoor spaces for decades.
Here in Bensenville, we’re proud to bring that same spirit home. Whether we’re sponsoring the Bensenville Park District’s Fischer Farm Earth Day Clean Up, supporting local e‑recycling and shredding events, or inviting you to use our in-store recycling center, our goal is simple: make it easier for our neighbors to live more sustainably—one small action at a time.
Inside Grand Subaru’s in-store recycling center
Our in-store recycling center is designed to make it convenient for you to safely recycle everyday items that are tough to handle at home. During regular showroom hours, you can drop off aluminum, household batteries, lightbulbs, plastics, paper, and cardboard so they’re kept out of landfills and given a second life through specialized recycling partners.
Located right in our showroom, the recycling center is open Monday through Saturday during business hours. If you’re already visiting for service or sales, you can bring a small box or bag of recyclables with you—no appointment needed. Over time, our customers and neighbors have turned this space into a go-to spot for cleaning out garages, basements, and home offices in a more eco-friendly way.
We also focus on the hardest-to-recycle items. Grand Subaru collects non-traditional waste streams—items that usually end up in the trash because curbside programs can’t accept them specializing in turning this hard-to-recycle material into raw material for new products instead of letting it sit in landfills.
By centralizing these efforts, one visit to our recycling center can keep dozens of batteries, bulbs, and containers out of the waste stream. Over the course of a year, that adds up to hundreds of pounds of material diverted from landfills. It’s a simple way for busy families and commuters to make a meaningful difference without adding another stop to their day.
Earth Day events, tree giveaways, and year-round community action
Our Earth Day community events bring together neighbors, families, and local organizations to celebrate the environment and roll up our sleeves for hands-on projects. Each spring, we partner with the Bensenville Park District for a lineup that typically includes e‑recycling, document shredding, park cleanups, and a family-friendly celebration at Fischer Farm.
For example, this year’s schedule features early-morning e‑recycling and free shredding at the Bensenville Water Park parking lot, followed by a cleanup at Varble Park and a midday Earth Day Celebration at Fischer Farm. Past events have included tending prairie areas, picking up litter and recyclables around the farm, and creating safer spaces for local wildlife and families to enjoy.
In addition, Subaru’s national Subaru Loves the Earth® initiative brings tree giveaways to communities across the country. Retailers help distribute regionally appropriate trees—often several feet tall in one-gallon containers—so residents can plant them in their yards and neighborhoods. Subaru U.S. Media Center notes that trees improve air quality, manage stormwater, and cool local temperatures, creating healthier places to live.
For Grand Subaru, these Earth Day activities aren’t just once-a-year events. They’re touchpoints in a larger, year-round effort to connect our customers with practical ways to live more sustainably. From sharing maintenance tips that improve fuel efficiency to promoting hybrid and electric Subaru models, we’re always looking for new ways to make eco‑friendly choices easier and more accessible.
How our partnerships turn hard-to-recycle waste into new life
Through community recycling partnerships, we help ensure the material you drop off at Grand Subaru is processed safely and responsibly. By working with local recycling providers, we turn what looks like everyday trash into valuable raw material that can be used to make new products and packaging.
Hard-to-recycle items—things made from mixed materials, small flexible plastics, or complex components that most municipal recycling programs can’t accept, Instead of sending those items straight to a landfill, Grand Subaru help get them to the right locations to separated, cleaned, and processed into reusable materials. Those materials then go into new items like outdoor furniture, storage containers, and industrial products. Grand Subaru has helped recycle millions of pieces of waste by working with local partners.
At the local level, e‑recycling and document shredding events, often hosted in partnership with the Bensenville Park District, keep old electronics and sensitive documents out of the regular trash stream. Certified vendors safely handle items such as computers, monitors, printers, and networking gear, recovering metals and components for reuse while protecting your data and our environment.
When you bring your recyclables to Grand Subaru, you’re tapping into this broader network of expertise. A single dropped-off bag of batteries, bulbs, and plastics might seem small, but combined with contributions from other families, local businesses, and our staff, it supports an entire system that gives materials a useful second life.
Real stories from local cleanups and community projects
Bensenville’s local cleanups and community projects show how powerful small acts can be when neighbors work together. Year after year, volunteers join Grand Subaru and the Bensenville Park District at Fischer Farm for Earth Day cleanups. Armed with gloves and bags, teams spread out to collect litter, recyclables, and debris that don’t belong in our fields, trails, or animal areas.
At past events—like the Fischer Farm Clean Up in 2023 and the Park Clean Up in 2021—volunteers have hauled away bags of trash, sorted out recyclables, and helped restore the natural beauty of one of our community’s most-loved outdoor spaces. These efforts improve habitat for local wildlife and make it more enjoyable for families to walk, picnic, and learn about nature.
In 2019, Grand Subaru supported a community garden project that gave residents a place to grow organic, healthy foods together. That garden brought neighbors side by side in the soil, exchanging tips, sharing harvests, and showing young children, often for the first time, how food grows from seed to plate.
These stories reinforce a simple belief: when we create opportunities for people to participate—whether by joining a cleanup, planting a tree, or dropping off recyclables at our showroom—sustainability becomes a shared community value, not an individual burden.
Simple ways you can join Grand Subaru in loving the Earth
You don’t need to be an expert to support eco-friendly change in Bensenville. A few simple habits, repeated over time, can make a lasting difference. Start by collecting items at home that our in-store recycling center accepts—like aluminum, batteries, lightbulbs, plastics, paper, and cardboard—and bring them along on your next visit to Grand Subaru.
You can also mark your calendar for upcoming Earth Day and community events. Join us for e‑recycling and shredding days, park cleanups, and celebrations at Fischer Farm. Even an hour or two of your time helps keep local parks cleaner, trails safer, and the environment healthier for everyone.
At home, small changes like reducing single-use plastics, choosing reusable bags and bottles, and staying current on vehicle maintenance all contribute to a lower environmental footprint. A well-maintained vehicle tends to run more efficiently, saving fuel and reducing emissions over time.
Finally, if you’re involved with a school, non-profit, or community group that promotes sustainability or environmental education, we’d love to hear from you. Grand Subaru is always looking for new ways to support local organizations that share our commitment to protecting the planet. Reach out to us and let us know how we can partner with you to make our community even greener.
