League of Women Voters of Greater Omaha

League members and our families have been invited to tour local recycling operation Firstar Fiber on Monday, September 19, at 5:30 to 7 p.m. This is during the company’s regular operating hours, so visitors will actually see in action the manual and mechanical processes used to sort recyclables. President and CEO Dale Gubbels will also speak about the company’s recent efforts to launch an exciting new era for Omaha to turn otherwise totally wasted resources, such as the plastic packaging contained in the Hefty® EnergyBag®, into new products like plastic lumber, which the company is trademarking as Solutions Plastic Lumber. To introduce its product to Nebraska, the company developed Project School Board, an effort that connects future builders, that is, high school skilled and technical services students, with their communities. Project School Board will make the lumber available to schools to build park benches, outdoor furniture, planters and for other similar durable applications. In turn, through community partnerships, these items can then be placed in schools or communities for everyone’s enjoyment. Project School Board is not just a very tangible demonstration of recycling’s benefits, it provides resources for our most precious resources, our children. It demonstrates students’ abilities, the value of recycling these previously wasted resources and the means to foster community pride. Working with the Nebraska Dept. of Education, Firstar learned many schools and charitable groups, e.g., Goodwill’s YouthBuild, do not have sufficient funds to routinely purchase supplies and thus rely on donations or students to self-fund their projects. With corporate and brand sponsorship Firstar envisions making kits of lumber readily available to schools and nonprofit community and service groups across the entire state. Learn more about the vision to help Nebraska achieve levels of plastic recycling that will be the envy of the country by registering for the LWVGO’s Firstar Fiber tour on September 19. Have a speaker suggestion or questions for the featured speaker? Email it to Office@lwvgo.org