How a company in landlocked Nebraska is helping fight plastic pollution in oceans

John Yang:

Earlier this month, a report from the Pew Charitable Trust and its partners predicted that plastic pollution will more than double over the next 15 years. That`s the equivalent of dumping nearly a garbage truck full of plastic waste every second. In the middle of America, hundreds of miles from an ocean, Kassidy Arena of PBS Nebraska visited an innovative company that wants to turn plastic pollution into something constructive.

Kassidy Arena (voice-over):

When people walk into this crowded warehouse in Omaha, Nebraska, the first thing they`ll see are bags of what looks like garbage piled floor to ceiling. But Firstar CEO Patrick Leahy explains this is not trash. It`s his company`s treasure.

Patrick Leahy, CEO, First Star Recycling:

What makes First Star Recycling unique is then we take hard to recycle plastics. We take those recycle them in house. We don`t ship them out to another place and we make plastic lumber or pellets with it, depending on what.

Kassidy Arena (voice-over):

Leahy`s company has long been a leader in plastic waste management in Nebraska, and it`s now trying out a new type of recycling, taking plastics called from oceans around the world and turning them into building materials.

Leahy says his company is one of the few in the U.S. that processes trash considered too hard to recycle. Things like gum wrappers, plastic silverware, and grocery bags. 4,000 miles across the Pacific, word of Leahy`s innovative business impressed the center for Marine Debris Research, or CMDR, at Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu.

It specializes in cleaning the oceans of plastics, including discarded fishing gear. Every year, they collect nearly 200 tons of it. And the trash is not just from the waters off Hawaii. It comes from all corners of the globe, including a debris field known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Located roughly midway between Hawaii and California, it`s the largest accumulation of floating ocean plastic in the world.

Jennifer Lynch, CMDR Co-Director:

The plastic pollution problem in the ocean is transboundary. It`s impacting every single ocean.

Kassidy Arena (voice-over):

Jennifer Lynch is the co director of CMDR. She says it`s going to take many more efforts like this one in Nebraska to turn this plastic crisis around.

Jennifer Lynch:

Plastic pollution has traveled the entire globe and every single human on the planet is experiencing some exposure to microplastics.

Kassidy Arena (voice-over):

That blanket exposure comes after more than 50 years of nationwide recycling efforts which have failed to keep pace with the surge of plastics.

Patrick Leahy acknowledges the business he`s building faces hurdles. The lumber itself needs to prove it can meet real world construction standards. But perhaps the biggest challenge is sustainability. Do the upsides of recycling plastic in Nebraska justify the costs and carbon footprint of shipping from Hawaii?

Leahy believes the answer is to one day bring the solution closer to the problem.

Patrick Leahy:

The hope being if we can show that this is successful, we can start a similar kind of plant there in Hawaii where they can just process it on site.

Kassidy Arena (voice-over):

Leahy`s dream is that the synthetic boards he`s making can one day help rebuild Maui, which was nearly destroyed two years ago in devastating wildfires.

Patrick Leahy:

It`s always about the quality of the products. Even though recycling sustainability is a great story, if the product is not superior either by quality or price, then people won`t want to use it for whatever project they have.

Kassidy Arena (voice-over):

He told us his quest for now is to prove his lumber is up to the task and that a state from the Great Plains can play a role in cleaning up the world`s oceans. For PBS News Weekend, I`m Kassidy Arena in Omaha, Nebraska.