Here's Omaha's Top Recyclers in 2024
Wanna know what the top organizations are doing to divert their trash from the landfill? Then this is your blog post.
We give old bowling trophies away to the top organizations we’re partnered with every year during our Eco Awards Ceremony. These are organizations that accomplished something big and notable in 2024 with their recycling, composting, and/or reuse efforts.
In the process, we like to share their tips and tricks directly with you, so you can apply them at your organization as well.
But before we dive into this year’s 10 winners, here are the big numbers Hillside, Gretna Sanitation, and Soil Dynamics hit in 2024:
50,000 tons of compostables kept out of the landfill
2,300 tons of recyclables sent to First Star Recycling
1,800 households participating in Compost Club
1,400 students composting every single school day
675 organizations working toward a stronger circular economy
590 compost cans helping communities do better
36 employees (gracefully… and sometimes not-so-gracefully) holding it all together
These numbers aren’t just stats — they’re stories. They represent food scraps turned into rich compost, recyclables given a second life, and communities proving that small actions make a difference.
We’re so proud of what this community has built. Every household, every school, every organization willing to do the hard (and sometimes messy) work of sustainability — you made this possible.
So before we hand out our repurposed bowling trophies (and maybe shed a happy tear or two), we just want to say: thank you. You’re not just participating in change — you are the change.
Keep reading — up next, we’ll be announcing this year’s Eco Award winners!
Reuse Award
Dundee Bank x Little Mountain Ranch
Composting and recycling are great. But Dundee Bank & Little Mountain Ranch did something better: they redirected public waste to feed animals. Here’s how it went down …
Since 2019, we’ve partnered with Dundee Bank to host a pumpkin collection container after Halloween. For much of that time, we’ve been composting the pumpkins — which is great. But the past two years, we’ve teamed up with a small, local, family-run ranch and garden near Fort Calhoun. We now take the pumpkins to their ranch to feed their happy little forest-roaming pigs.
In return, the pork from their ranch makes its way back to Omaha via a wonderful winter CSA program, Aksarben Village’s farmers market, and local restaurants like Le Bouillon. And since some of these residents and restaurants also compost with us, this whole effort makes one big amazing circular food loop.
Pumpkins that would’ve gone to the landfill now support local farms and local food. Simple. Sustainable. Community-powered.
Congratulations Little Mountain Ranch & Garden and Dundee Bank for receiving our 2024 Reuse Eco Award!
Eco-friendly Schools Award
Bellevue East High School
Each year, schools across the U.S. create over 530,000 tons of food waste.
But at Bellevue East High School, things are different.
They’re composting an average of 100 pounds of food waste a day, which is amazing on its own. But what really sets them apart? A Share Bin.
Instead of tossing unopened milk, snacks, cheese sticks, and apples, students can grab what they want for a quick snack or even take it home to help with meals.
We love this because while composting is great, feeding people is even better.
Thanks to their Share Bin, Bellevue East is saving around another 100 pounds of food a day — keeping over 9 tons of food out of the landfill every year!
For this incredible accomplishment, we’re proud to give Bellevue East High School the Eco-Friendly Schools Award. We hope their story inspires more schools to do the same.
Implementation Award
Alvine Engineering
Our 2024 Implementation Award honors partners who didn’t just sign up — they committed to doing it right, from start to finish.
At Alvine Engineering’s HQ in downtown Omaha, they stood out by following our full 12-step onboarding guide, hiring us to oversee the rollout, and building one of the most advanced zero-waste programs available in our city.
Here’s what makes their program shine:
Multiple Waste Streams — They have a bin for composting food waste and paper towels, a bin for recycling soft plastics through the Hefty Renew Bag program, a bin for recycling containers like plastic bottles, metal cans, and cardboard, and use landfill/trash as a last resort.
Reusable Dishware — They invested in reusable mugs, cups, plates, and utensils, alongside refill coffee and water stations, which minimize single-use items.
Full Team Training — Every employee was required to watch a custom training video we made and we provided bilingual guides for custodians so after-hours waste sorting occurred correctly.
Because of their incredible commitment to doing it right, we’re proud to recognize Alvine Engineering with the 2024 Implementation Award.
Compost Club Award
Faith Westwood Church
There’s one church in Omaha, Nebraska where you can stand in the parking lot, rotate 360 degrees, and see every aspect of the circular food system working at its absolute best.
A circular food system happens when food isn’t wasted and it’s cycled back into the community. Food scraps become compost, compost grows new food, and that food feeds people. It’s about keeping resources flowing, not throwing them away. FaithWestwood Church has built exactly that.
They have a dual-stream recycling system — one dumpster for containers like metal, plastic, and soft plastics through the Hefty Renew Bag program, and another for paper, cardboard, and fiber.
They also compost food waste from the church and all their events.
And they didn’t stop there.
FaithWestwood hosts a Compost Club site where the community can drop off food scraps. Through our Compost Club Gives program, members donate unused soil credits back to the church.
FaithWestwood uses that composted soil to grow food — like potatoes — for their FaithWorks Pantry, helping families in need.
It’s a real, working example of a circular food system — right in a church parking lot.
For their leadership and community impact, we’re proud to present FaithWestwood Church with the Compost Club Gives Award!
Retail Award
Sewing Concepts
This year’s Eco-Award for Retail Shop Excellence goes to Sewing Concepts — a business that’s not just making flags, but raising the banner for sustainability.
Since joining our dual-stream program, they’ve been all in. Always asking, “What else can we recycle?” and “How can we do better?”
Their team finds a home for nearly everything — donating felt scraps to local art collectives, recycling metal at Scrap Central, and dropping ink cartridges at Office Depot.
They stitch sustainability into their daily work. It’s thoughtful, creative, and consistent.
We’re proud to recognize Sewing Concepts for leading by example — and making waste reduction part of their fabric.
Keep flying high.
Compost Clubber Award
Amanda Allen
We have 1,800 Compost Club members (our residential composting program), and this award recognizes a clubber who’s going above and beyond.
So for this year, it goes to Amanda Allen for integrating composting into multiple aspects of her life.
Last year Amanda realized she had composting at home and composting at LinkedIn, which is her place of work. In fact, LinkedIn asked her to put together an activity for their family fun day, and she brought us in.
We let the chaos unfold by dumping a bunch of waste on the ground and let kids race to sort what was recyclable. It was messy, hilarious, and oddly SO educational. (We use this tactic on our adults *now* during Recycle 101 days! 😂🙌).
But that left out one place you’ll often find her — her CrossFit gym in Elkhorn called The Fit.
So she took it upon herself to setup a snazzy little recycling and composting program at the gym using our recommended practices. Members now have access to bring in their food scraps from cutting up veggies, recycling their protein and supplement containers, and even doing better with their protein bar wrappers.
Basically, Amanda’s the friend who’s always got a fun idea, a compost bin nearby, and a reason to make sustainability feel like a team sport. Big shoutout to Amanda Allen — Compost Clubber of the year! 🌱
Resilience Award
First Star Recycling
First Star Recycling has been a true trailblazer in the face of adversity.
When the China Ban (officially called National Sword) hit in 2018, it shook the global recycling market. China, which had been the largest buyer of recyclable materials from the U.S., drastically restricted the import of contaminated recyclables. This left many U.S. recycling programs scrambling — and many even shut down.
But not First Star.
Instead of giving up, they adapted — shifting to a dual-stream recycling model, where paper/cardboard is separated from plastics and metal.
This extra sorting step dramatically reduces contamination and produces higher-quality recyclables that support strong markets.
But there’s more …
First Star partnered with Hefty® to launch the Hefty Renew™ program — giving hard-to-recycle plastics like chip bags, foam containers, and candy wrappers a second life instead of sending them to the landfill.
And for years, First Star was sending that collected material out of state to be processed. But to create a new revenue stream while keeping that material local, they created Solutions Plastic Lumber.
Instead of expending all that carbon to ship out of state, they now process Hefty Renew bags on-site by grinding it down and compressing the material into plastic lumber. This creates a durable building material that’s used locally — showing that their recycling operation can adjust to consumer demands while developing processes to keep recycled materials local.
For navigating the global recycling crisis with grit, creativity, and relentless innovation, we’re proud to present First Star Recycling with the Resilience Award.
Innovation Award
Maddy Wahl with Keep Omaha Beautiful
One of the secrets to unlocking the power of recycling is knowing that all recycling is local. What happens in one city can be different than what happens in your own. But traditionally, finding that info was a huge, confusing time-suck.
But something spectacular happened in Omaha. The City of Omaha, Keep Omaha Beautiful, and Firstar Recycling came together and once and for all agreed on every large and small item you could think of.
What came of it was the Omaha Recycling Guide. And the main driver of that project was Madeline Wahl.
Thanks to her countless hours putting that thing together, she’s saving our community from tens of thousands of Google searches and tense late-night arguments over which bin a pizza box goes into.
And for that, I say thank you to Maddy! Check it out at www.omaharecyclingguide.org.
Biggest Impact Award
Google SLN
As one of the largest companies on the planet, Google has a massive responsibility when it comes to sustainability. With their enormous data operations, global campuses, and tech infrastructure, their environmental footprint could be staggering.
The good news is that Google has big sustainability goals. And when it comes to their solid waste, they’re absolutely crushing it at their largest data center, which happens to be tucked south of Council Bluffs.
At the Google SLN site, we’ve seen a serious commitment to waste diversion and sustainability. In just one year, they recycled or composted 248 tons of material. That’s a bold number - and a bigger impact. They’ve shown us that being a global tech leader and an eco-conscious one is not only possible - it’s necessary.
We're proud to recognize Google SLN for leading by example and pushing the limits of what corporate sustainability can look like.
Zero Waste Event Award
Earth Day Omaha
Earth Day Omaha is the city’s biggest annual celebration of the environment — a day packed with music, food, vendors, and community action at Elmwood Park.
Last year, they made history. 2024 marked the first-ever Zero Waste Earth Day Omaha event! 🎉♻️
How did they do it?
They partnered with us to set up Zero Waste Stations across the event, staffed by amazing volunteers who helped educate people on what goes where. We also worked with vendors ahead of time to make sure they were minimizing waste and composting or recycling as much as possible.
Because of their leadership and commitment to making sustainability a real action (not just a buzzword), we’re proud to recognize Earth Day Omaha with the Zero Waste Event Eco Award! 🌎✨
As we wrap up another incredible year, we’re reminded that sustainability isn’t a solo sport - it’s a community effort.
From compost bins to recycling wins, this work takes all of us. Whether you’re a school swapping snacks, a church growing potatoes, or a business asking the hard questions, you’re proof that better is possible.
Thank you for showing up, staying curious, and keeping it circular. We can’t wait to see what we build together next.
Back to the Facebook Market Place to find trophies for next year…