Last Sunday, islander Nadine Edelstein packed the John L. Scott moving truck with polystyrene other islanders wanted to get rid of and headed off the island with it to Styro Recycle in Kent.

Edelstein, a tile artist who often ends up with Styrofoam through her work, said she regularly makes Styrofoam recycle runs and has wanted to expand that effort for a long time. This year, she acted on that and — pressed for time — posted a few notices of her plans on Facebook and made three signs, on Styrofoam itself, and placed them around town.

On Sunday, with the John L. Scott truck parked at the old Kimmco Building, approximately 100 islanders streamed in over a period of five hours, shedding their polystyrene. It filled the back of the truck and the cab, with more left over.

“It was overwhelming. It was phenomenal,” Edelstein said.

She was working just as herself — not as part of a larger group — and said some people gave her money for gas. She intends to do it again and would like to make a post-holiday polystyrene recycle trip an annual event.

“It is one of the things I do in my life that gives me great satisfaction,” she said about Styrofoam recycling.

Edelstein said she would also like to see increased efforts around the use and recycling of Styrofoam happen on the island, though noted she cannot afford to take that project on entirely herself

“I am happy to make it a bigger thing and think it should be a bigger thing,” she added.

As for the reaction at Styro Recycle when she rolled in with her load, “They were giddy,” she said. “I was well received.”