First Star Recycling

F or 22 years, FirstStar Fiber, Inc., oper- ating as FirstStar Recycling, has been doing its innovative best to help save our planet, and that passion is getting stronger and more creative all the time. The firm was formed in 1997 with the mission to enhance Nebraska’s recycling infrastructure. Operations began in the spring of 1998 in Fremont, and relocated a year later to a larger Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Omaha, nearer the company’s growing customer base. Today, First Star Recycling employs over 130 people at its sites in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, where it processes recyclables for businesses and communities throughout the Midwest, and markets close to 100,000 tons annually to end users throughout the coun- try and internationally. First Star’s mechani- cal sorting process was the first of its kind in Nebraska and is still the largest in the state, providing commercial and residential custom- ers the most convenient and comprehensive means to recycle. Dale Gubbels, CEO of FirstStar Fiber, Inc., explains, “FirstStar Fiber, Inc. is our corpo- rate entity. The reason for having ‘Fiber’ in the name is because we started the company with the idea of building a paper mill, but that didn’t pan out. So, we do business as FirstStar