by Sophia Ridder, reporter
In 2016, UNO started a pilot project to use the Hefty energy bag program across campus but because they don’t meet there zero waste goals, they may not continue the program.
Hefty energy bags take hard to recycle plastics like styrofoam and plastic bags, and use them to make other resources.
Kristina Hughes the Sustainability Coordinator at UNO, said “This is another waste stream that those materials can go into, and therefore be diverted from the landfill.”
The program has faced some backlash with how it processes the plastics. The materials are currently being burned and used to make ethanol, which Michelle said can be worse than the plastic going to the landfill.
“If we put it in a landfill we have an opportunity to make other changes to help reduce overall carbon release within the timeframe that that material is breaking down in the landfill. Where if it’s burned, it’s all going up right now,” Hughes said.
Firststar Recycling, the City of Omaha’s recycling processing plant has decided to invest in the energy program and combat these concerns.
They are planning to expand their operations by processing the energy bags to produce a lumber material, aggregates for concrete and diesel fuel.
The new trash cans that Omaha residents received included Hefty energy bags, and pamphlets on how to use the program. Danielle Cox with Firststar said that the program could help them with every stage of their operations.
“When they come in mixed with the normal recycling just lose. They tangle our machinery. So those screens that you saw and everything like that the plastic bags get wrapped around it, jams the machines up, means we have to stop the whole process,” Cox said.
One Omaha resident is excited to be able to recycle all his single use plastics. “If we can reduce the volume of materials or waste going into the landfills that’s all the better for us,” Michael Lacroix said.
