Firstar Fiber, Inc. (dba First Star Recycling) in Omaha will be taking grain bags at their new plastic lumber facility, Aaron Withington announced during the recent Keep Nebraska Beautiful (KNB) meeting in Alliance.
Aaron operates Western Resources Group in Ogallala – the next stop for Keep Alliance Beautiful’s office paper, paperboard, cardboard and plastic, including Hefty Energy Bag bales already earmarked, in part, for the same lumber production. His presentation was enlightening on a previously cumbersome, inconvenient to dispose of storage system. Now farmers can recycle material that had been piled or burned or even disced into a field. Grain bag, in this case, refers to the long, white sacks filled and sealed with specialized equipment in the field as an alternative or supplement to traditional bin storage.
Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) throughout Nebraska, such as our recycling center, are beginning to promote collection of grain bags as another hard-to-recycle plastics resource. Firstar will have a dropoff point at Western Resources. Aaron had said previously that the collection would kick off in July.
According to the Firstar website, plastics that are considered notoriously hard-to-recycle (e.g. films and plastics with limited end markets such as grain bags and materials gathered in the energy bags) are processed through their plastic pre-processing facility turning them into plastic feedstock cubes or flake. A portion of these cubes are utilized at their plastic lumber facility, generating approximately 700,000 feet of boards in both dimensional lumber and decking boards.
Everything from a sack of plastic grocery bags to a 100-foot spent grain bag can contribute to a viable circular economy in Nebraska.
For area growers that have or will have used grain bags this season, KAB is working with Aaron and our recyclables hauler, Earl “Spud” Rowley, who also operates the Kimball recycling center.
“We need to educate farmers on how to roll it,” Aaron said. “We won’t take it wadded up.” He explained that a hay baler would gather package the plastic. Also, “There is some grain left, you won’t get clean bags.” Spud will also accept the large grain totes through KAB, though the material is not the same as the bags.
Keep Nebraska Beautiful directors, staff and board members, seated around the table at the Knight Museum and Sandhills Center, debated the best way to reach out to grain bag users. The best sources mentioned included local crop insurance companies, Farm Service Agency offices and other agribusiness entities.
Western Resources operates machinery capable of bailin grain bags. Their equipment produces bales larger than those from the recycling center in Alliance, so KAB may opt to bale or send bags rolled – whatever is most feasible. This type of grain storage is not as prevalent in the northern Panhandle as other areas of Nebraska, so recycling demand may reflect that in the months to come. A family farming northwest of Alliance has embraced this option though I have yet to reach them about the benefits of recycling.
Grain bags are comparable to used tires, which are common byproducts of doing business in the country and expensive to dispose of properly. Amnesty events, such as one at the Alliance Municipal Landfill in 2021, clear hundreds of tons of tires from farms and ranches. News that the temporary storage tubes would soon be in demand brought enough grain bags to Western Resources by mid-May to fill 15 semi-truck loads, Aaron said. “We’re not charging the farmer to bring it, but what does it cost us for man hours?”
As everyone who hates litter notices after a thunderstorm, Aaron pointed out, “The majority of plastic that blows around is that soft pliable plastic.” Regardless of what its single use was, he emphasized, “Let’s make a program that makes them feel good about recycling it – turns into something else.”