First Star Recycling

installing several robots in the near future.” Community involvement is an important part of the FirstStar culture, and the company av- idly supports Keep Omaha Beautiful and Keep Nebraska Beautiful. It is also a member of the Association of Plastic Recyclers, the Nebraska Recycling Council, and the Business Ethics Alli- ance, which is based in Omaha. That organiza- tion’s mission is to help companies navigate ethical questions about business, and is a part- nership among regional businesses, Creighton University and other local colleges, the Omaha Chamber of Commerce, and the Omaha Better Business Bureau. Looking ahead, FirstStar Recycling has some ambitious objectives. “We’re looking at ways we can establish end markets closer to us,” says Gubbels. That includes putting a pyrolysis system in our own facility that would enable us, rather than shipping off unrecyclable plas- tics, to process the material and return it to diesel right on our site. And the City of Omaha is in the process of changing its residential re- cycling system from small, open 18-gallon bins to 96-gallon carts. So, one of our future needs will be to expand our processing capability because wherever communities have made that kind of change, they’ve seen tremendous growth. Just this past spring, the nearby City of Bellevue has switched to carts and we’ve seen a doubling of the recycling their residents FIRST STAR FIBER, INC./FIRST STAR RECYCLING