Latest: State of Commercial Recycling in Omaha
Update July 2024: We have talked to a few organizations that have had tours as recent as 2023 and 2024, and they confirmed that Nebraskaland’s capabilities aren’t as comprehensive as First Star.
Update December 20, 2021: Dual-stream recycling results are in. The process produces cleaner material & helps recycling centers stay in business, according to WasteDive.
Update January 26, 2021: Update on Nebraskaland Recycling: We still have not been able to tour the facility to verify if the recycling program meets our customer’s needs.
Recycling in Omaha is real. It works. But only if your recyclables wind up at First Star.
Why is that? Well, recycling has changed since the 2018 China ban. There’s a new and modern way to recycle, but not all haulers have made the upgrade.
See, other than the agreement the City of Omaha has, recycling haulers can technically take recyclables wherever they want. We have a list of those places below with a rating system. But the short of it is — you want them to go to First Star. To ensure our partners can confirm we take their material to the right place, we had First Star write us this confirmation letter.
It’s all about accountability, and we love that First Star will give us a tour anytime we want. They have a 27-year track record, and they are partnered and supported by credible non-profit organizations like Keep Omaha Beautiful and Nebraska Recycling Council.
What’s the modern way to recycle?
As reported in the Omaha World Herald in 2018, industry trade site Waste Dive, and First Star’s letter to recycling haulers, commercial entities must make changes to their recycling program in order to ensure their materials continue to be recycled properly.
If your organization puts materials into dumpsters, you must convert from “single-stream” recycling to “dual-stream,” while also verifying that your hauling company is taking materials to First Star and/or International Paper.
The change comes in response to the Omaha area’s top materials recovery facility (aka MRF) First Star Recycling’s protocol. Note: this does not affect residential.
If you are still using single-stream with dumpsters, your material is probably going to Nebraskaland. We explain why that’s problematic below.
More on who First Star is and why this occurred below, but first ...
Here’s a quick list of changes:
VERIFY: Verify that your hauling company is taking your materials to First Star.
DUMPSTERS: If you use dumpsters, you must convert them from single-stream to dual-stream unless you’ve obtained special permission from First Star.
CARTS, COMPACTORS, ROLL-OFFS: These containers are still eligible for single-stream recycling. If you have a small enough organization that could use a 96-gallon cart/tote instead of dumpsters, we have a program for that; sign up: Curbside Rewards
NO PLASTIC BAGS: Other than Hefty Renew bag’s, no plastic bags can make it into containers.
CONTAMINATION: Your organization must cut down on contamination.
DUAL-STREAM: How to Separate
Commercial clients using dumpsters must now separate recyclables into two categories:
FIBER STREAM: Dry and Clean Cardboard + Paper (except napkins, paper towels, and heavily soiled/wet material)
CONTAINER STREAM: Empty and Clean Containers (like aluminum/tin/steel cans, and plastics #1, 2, 3, 5) + soft plastics bagged in EnergyBag’s
Different outcomes per where your recyclables go…
Places us haulers can take your recycled materials …
To be clear, not all haulers take commercial recycling materials to the same place. Based on where it goes, the probability of getting it recycled changes. Here are the options in Omaha:
NebraskaLand = Unknown
As Verdis Group pointed out in their analysis in 2018, NebraskaLand Recycling at the time still accepted single-stream. However, due to a lack of sorting infrastructure & connections to commodities markets identified in our own site tour, we determined not to send materials to NebraskaLand.
Since then, Nebraskaland was invited to put in a competitive bid to potentially receive City of Omaha’s residential recycling. According to the City of Omaha administrative officials, Nebraskaland has improved its recycling capabilities since 2018.
In response, we reached out to Nebraskaland for a tour twice in late 2020 over email and showed up unannounced on a 3rd occasion but were not provided a tour. So, until we can independently verify, it is our recommendation not to send material to this facility.
We have talked to a few organizations that have had tours as recent as 2023 and 2024, and they confirmed that Nebraskaland’s capabilities aren’t as comprehensive as First Star.
International Paper = 👍
International Paper has a facility in North Omaha. While they accept some types of plastic & metal (usually isolated and in high volumes), their specialty is in recycling fibers like paper and cardboard. After meeting with them, touring their facility, and researching the company, they have met our requirements and we currently work with International Paper.
We take portions of our cardboard-only pickup routes to their facility. From there, they send cardboard to regional paper mills to be reused in other products.
First Star Recycling = 👍👍
Per our research and extensive experience, First Star is our primary destination for recycled materials due to their scale of collection infrastructure and connections to commodity markets. As our chosen and trusted MRF, First Star Recycling has set the current requirements for dual-stream commercial recycling.
Because Omaha is landlocked, First Star has established many regional connections to commodity buyers, which have helped ensure materials are recycled despite the major shifts in the international market.
We tour First Star at least once a year, and the quality of the materials in our recent tours was the best we’ve seen.
Here’s a look inside First Star
(This next part is for the geeks that wanna dive deep. Let’s go!)
Why all the changes?
The International Influence
There’s been an international shake-up in the recycling industry. We won’t bore you with the complexities of turning your recycled materials into reusable commodities, but the short of it is: China stopped taking the world’s recycled materials, and the nation-wide industry has been scrambling to make changes as commodity prices have fallen.
Here’s the hard truth: Our recycling industry has had an unhealthy, codependent relationship with China for a long time. America has been sending them really crappy material with loads of contamination for years. Because China took it, haulers, municipalities, and material recycling facilities didn’t bother to fix this one big problem: most people recycle the wrong way.
But now that China and other international markets aren’t accepting our crummy recycled materials, we’re faced with fixing our nation’s system.
Single-Stream Recycling Explained
Single-stream recycling is quite frankly a lazy way to recycle, and it’s the system that Omaha has spoiled us with for years. It means that you and I have been able to put all recyclable materials into the same place.
It’s simple, which means more folks are likely to engage with it, but it’s highly flawed because if one bad apple puts half a can of soda into a bin, then all the paper you recycled gets soaked, and all the plastics now have a sticky residue. This is called contamination, and if a load of recycled materials is too contaminated, then materials may go to the landfill.
Another hard truth: Regardless of current circumstances, recycling is inherently a flawed system. For example, just because a water bottle gets placed inside a recycling container doesn’t guarantee that it actually gets recycled. In reality, way more “recycled” materials end up in the landfill than you’d think, and it’s always been that way.
Here are the contributing factors:
People contaminate the stream with food, liquid, and other non-recyclable materials
Waste haulers taking materials to inadequate MRF’s
Lack of manufacturers that want to purchase recycled materials at a profitable price
To use a metaphor, recycling isn’t a black-or-white process; it’s varying shades of grey. For example, by recycling the right materials, working with the right hauler/MRF, and with favorable market conditions, your materials have a higher probability of actually getting recycled. But if any one of these conditions isn’t optimal, then materials may end up in the landfill.
So, how do you make the change?
We not only haul waste, but we also provide education, training, and consultation in setting up your program. Our free Quick Start Guide shows our process.
Contact our team, and let's get started!
Lots of love,
from the team at Hillside Solutions