Books Live On In Little Libraries By JOHN E. WEARE KAB Sliding into the driver’s seat on a gray rainy day a little late for work a flash of color fluttered by the windshield – a monarch butterfly, in no particular hurry on its way to the next flower. I seem to remember a butterfly on the PBS show “Reading Rainbow”, which celebrated reading, books, and where stories can take you. Books make their way to the Keep Alliance Beautiful Recycling Center ranging from almost new text books to well-loved classics that passed through many hands. While I would rather see a book become paper for a new novel than decompose in a garbage heap, the “reuse” option is my preference. Little Free Libraries, “a nonprofit organization with a mission to build community, inspire readers and expand book access for all through a global network”, has given millions of books a means to find fresh eyes. I have enjoyed finding these bread box-sized libraries while traveling in recent years. Leaving a book or two is a goal after bringing a handful home. The first local library I noticed was the train car in front of Dairy Queen, which my family likes to check when we take the time to go in rather than take the drive through. There is usually a fun assortment with a few books we read to the kids years ago. Recently I noticed a lavender library along a street I often travel and asked if I could grab a photo and hear the story behind it. The little building perched on a post has been there for months, it turns out. Patricia Jones explained it was a Mother’s Day gift from her children that her husband, Earl, painted and put near the curb and sidewalk after checking with the City. Anyone who opens the doors will find a mix of adult fiction, young adult fiction and children’s books along with a few cookbooks and magazines, she said. “Some of it is classic literature, some is quick, easy reads.” Patricia checks the library a couple times a week. “People leave so many books it amuses me no end,” she said, explaining some donations are not anonymous with people coming to the door to drop off a stack of books. “People also take books. I’m surprised at the ones they don’t take.” Earl said “Call of the Wild” went right away. Patricia added that cookbooks also disappear quickly. Though their library is not a registered Little Free Library, Patricia said, “We’ve always been into the idea of little libraries. . . . I certainly hope people keep taking books.” The Joneses mentioned another library at 2736 Laramie Drive in Alliance and one outside the Mobius building in Hemingford. I stopped at Mobius to empty their recycling bin the next day and asked Susan Morava, CFO, about what I had thought driving by was a mailbox. Susan said the Little Free Library, registered and chartered, has been there since January 2022. “Surprisingly yes,” she affirmed, lots of books have been in and out of the rectangular red box. “The most usage now is adult books.” Restocking is never a problem as Susan has “a real good group of readers that donate books to me and I have a lot of my personal books in there. . . Everybody (at Mobius) has been really generous with their books. A young gal in town has donated probably 100 children’s books.” She added, “I take books from there and put in other (little free) libraries when I travel.” When Susan has too many books she donates them to the Mission Store, then when she is running low she returns to buy them there. “I just love sharing books to read. I asked the (Hemingford Public) library if they were okay with it before putting it up. I agree it’s ok to give books a second life.” For information on joining more than 200,000 miniature neighborhood libraries around the world visit: littlefreelibrary.org (fb)

Rural Joins Urban Recycling In Midwest’s Largest Facility By JOHN E. WEARE KAB How do Nebraskans recycle? Depends. Are we talking Sandhills rancher, Seward state senator or Omaha banker? Patrick Leahy, CEO of Omaha-based Firstar Recycling, could tell you, in turn, I am pretty certain. Patrick (see the previous column) announced support for Nebraska’s rural recycling at the Keep Nebraska Beautiful (KNB) Conference in Lincoln earlier this year. While this news piqued my interest, he also offered a valuable perspective on the industry as a whole through the lens of “the largest MRF (Materials Recovery Facility) in the Midwest”. I cannot help but compare our goal of processing/shipping a million pounds (500 tons) in a year to the amount of recyclables Firstar marketed to end users in 2024 – 100,000 tons! This is “evenly split between business and single-stream residential,” Patrick explained. A staff of 110 employees working 24/6 takes advantage of automation and other technology to achieve this level of productivity. There are a lot of second-chance employees, such as immigrants and people released from the justice system, he said. The initial question from KNB affiliates in the room: “Have you heard recycling is broken and do you agree?” set the tone. Patrick replied that it “does have challenges. (These) can be speed bumps or can shut you down. The response? Recycling is easy, people make it difficult.” No argument from me there as much as I appreciate the majority of our patrons who do it right. Regarding contamination in the Hefty Energy Bag program, known for its orange bags, Patrick estimated less than 5 percent, maybe 2 percent, from residential. He said they receive 20 tons a month from their service. Through the first two quarters of 2025 KAB averaged three-quarters of a ton per month. That means each bag weighs two pounds on average, he said. Staff, most with at least five years on the job, check for containments. They look at commercial “orange bags” too, which weigh in at about 20 percent contamination. At KAB this material is sorted, primarily, from residential recycling though several businesses, including the Post Office, are adding to our orange bag volume. So, we strive to minimize contamination before they open our bags in Omaha. How a company processes materials is influenced by economics. Prepping recyclables for transport KAB only gets paid for a few categories and pays to ship the rest. At Firstar the facility had pelletized plastic. Patrick said they shuttered that option as the market price fell. He described how the Omaha MRF had invested in a facility to produce plastic lumber, its current production and how they are developing end markets. “A lot of field turf installers like our product, they can pin down that turf with lumber. They have a lot of scraps (from installing turf) afterward. We take that in and turn it into green-colored lumber.” Another question led back to pelletized plastic as Patrick was asked about his take on chemical recycling, “the process of converting polymeric waste by changing its chemical structure and turning it back into substances that can be used as raw materials for the manufacturing of plastics or other products.: (source: plasticseurope.org) “Eighty percent of the pellets we sold went to chemical recycling industry,” he said. “Neither good or bad, depends on the company and how they’re following regulations. Some of the bills . . . say give it a pass for 10 years because it’s a nascent technology. My take on it is I don’t know.” He noted that one of Firstar’s customers used the process to make more plastic and another was making oil. Again, considering what a material becomes, “Are you in a place where you can prioritize who you’re selling to to not downcycle?” Illustrating the point with a common piece of litter, Patrick replied: “The ability to take a candy wrapper and turn it into a wrapper – technology is 25 years away. We feel we’re a bridge solution. . . . We’re not in a position to pick and choose our markets. We’re in a bidding war for #1 and #2 (plastics). They’re turning it back to bottles – who will not leave us high and dry.” He emphasized that recycling anything is possible if you have unlimited resources. (fb)