Plastic Bags and Other “Tanglers” Disrupt Omaha’s Recycling System
Plastic bags are not accepted in Omaha’s curbside recycling carts or at drop-off sites. While plastic bags are the most common “tangler,” they aren’t the only items that cause problems. Items like Christmas lights, garden hoses, wires, rope, fabric, and even string also get caught in the machinery at Firstar Recycling.
These materials wrap around the shafts of the facility’s rotating screens — equipment used to separate flat materials like paper and cardboard from three-dimensional containers. When tanglers accumulate, the screens become less effective and eventually forces a complete shutdown of the sorting line.
When this happens, workers must spend hours manually removing the tangled materials from the machinery’s shafts that are lined up on a steep incling with no place good to stand — a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. Use the slider on the photo below to see the screen before and after cleaning.
