Zero Waste.

Avoid food waste whenever possible by meal planning, buying reasonable quantities, making scrap recipes, and sending still-edible food to Saving Grace Perishable Food Rescue. Excess produce from your garden can often be donated to local food pantries.

For whatever’s left, try at-home composting with a backyard pile or a worm bin from Big Red Worms in Lincoln. Hillside Solutions also offers a Compost Club collection program with convenient drop-sites throughout the metro. Yard waste in Bellevue is composted in the summer via the Papillion Sanitation city contract, so please keep plastics and trash out!

An EPS foam drop box is operated by the local Plastilite Corporation at their north Omaha plant where they recycle the material onsite. Styrofoam is not able to be taken by curbside recycling programs.

Recycling is last in the 5 Rs for a reason; it should be a last resort! While recycling is better than landfilling, it is still an energy-intensive process. Be mindful to avoid producing recyclables in the first place if possible, especially plastics which are notoriously difficult to recycle (only 9% of plastics are ever remade into a new product [NPR, 2020]).

Curbside recycling is offered through the city of Bellevue’s contract with Papillion Sanitation - visit their resource, Your Cart Plays a Part, for more information. Additional recycling drop-off locations are located around the metro area and can be found on the Omaha Wasteline website.

The Hefty® EnergyBag® program is an outlet for various non-recyclable soft plastics like snack bags, cling wrap, and toothpaste tubes. The current destination for these materials is pyrolysis, which creates low-grade diesel for fuel, essentially making this a waste-to-energy program. As with all plastics, the best option is to avoid purchasing them in the first place, however if you would like to participate in the EnergyBag® program, the bags are available for purchase at HyVees around the metro.

Glass is a wonderful nonporous material - great for healthy food storage. But consider how heavy it is and the quantity of fossil fuels required to transport it. With that in mind, there are lots of ways to repurpose your glass! Bottles can make great vases for fresh-picked wildflowers, jars for homemade candles, or can be reused as drinking vessels.

If you aren’t able to reuse your glass, Exist Green in Dundee will sometimes take jars for other shoppers to use. Finally, recycling options include a glass drop site at the Bellevue Fire Station, District 3 and a local family business, Glassman, who is now offering curbside glass recycling in Bellevue!

Check out our Bellevue resource guide here.