Photography through the lens of a smart phone still seems a bit foreign. Digital resampling to zoom just does not retain the same look of a 100-500mm telephoto to pick out an owl on a branch or a touchdown catch on a Friday night. However you like to capture an image it is easy to focus on closeups or wide angle views. Recycling tends to be like that for me – the recycling center and who we work directly with on one hand, and national news on the other. One session at the Keep Nebraska Beautiful Conference this fall brought the middle ground – Nebraska – into view.
Haley Nolde, executive director of the Nebraska Recycling Council, highlighted the state of recycling in Nebraska as well as a legislative resolution (163) as part of her presentation. She has been with NRC for four years and director just over a year. Keep Nebraska Beautiful has secured funding in the past from NRC for equipment. I hope to tap the organization in the future for information as our crew continues to handle an increasing volume of recyclables.
At the state level, Haley said, the Department of Environment and Energy is going to conduct a statewide Climate Action Plan – “recycling and waste is not mentioned,” she emphasized. The Environmental Protection Agency has a Waste Characterization Study, Haley added. She showed a slide regarding the study in Nebraska. It will: Quantify the impact of existing recycling programs; Identify opportunities to increase waste diversion; and Develop recommendations for programs and polices that reduce solid waste landfilled and increase marketability of recycled materials. “Hopefully it will turn into a lot of data we can use,” Haley said.
Addressing a room of about two dozen Keep America Beautiful affiliates, Haley implored, “Our input on this interim study (LR 163) is important. . . . Senator Hughes, Dist. 24, introduced the bill. She’s from Seward – their recycling center shut down. We want to provide input so we can hopefully improve recycling in the state.”
The resolution’s overall purpose is to: examine opportunities that increase recycling of municipal solid waste while also facilitating economic development and growth.” Materials leaving the Keep Alliance Beautiful recycling center have been part of “remanufacturing” LR 163 seeks. We sorted paperboard from corrugated cardboard the first few years I worked at KAB. Those clean, dry bales became livestock bedding upon reaching Ogallala. Our undyed No. 2 plastic (milk jugs) becomes dimensional building materials (used like sheetrock) at a plant in Kearney. A personal goal is to work with a business in Box Butte County to remanufacture and sell a material that currently travels hundreds of miles or more to close the loop. “There is not enough recycled material now to meet goals brands have committed to publicly,” Haley said.
The resolution’s study would even examine the potential for updating existing law “to develop and sustain private innovative solutions of managing municipal solid waste . . . into useful products of value for other Nebraska-based industries.” Maybe state funding is what’s needed to grease the gears and boost demand for products from local recyclables.
Lastly, the study looks to generate additional recommendations for “potential legislation to simultaneously increase recycling in Nebraska and promote economic growth.” If our neighbors throughout the Cornhusker state can see how recycling benefits economic development that is just one more factor in diverting what could be raw material from our landfills.
Recycling in Nebraska could change drastically in the next five to ten years carried by public and political demand. To delve a bit deeper into the future I suggest researching two of Haley’s other topics: LB 1101 Solid Waste Management Programs Study, and how our state could gain ground with Extended Producer Responsibility legislation.