Tag: Center for Marine Debris Research

Omaha Innovation: Firstar Fiber Recycles Plastic Marine Debris into Lumber!

OmahaNebraska.com thanks Firstar Fiber, Inc. for the tour and interviews earlier today.

Kudos to Firstar Fiber, Inc. for their work to find new, innovative uses for discarded plastic.

Today, they turned plastic fishing nets into plastic pucks to make recycled plastic lumber.

Marine debris is a serious problem for our oceans. How can this be turned into an opportunity? Enter Firstar Fiber and Center for Marine Debris Research.

The Center for Marine Debris Research collected plastic fishing nets and sent them to Firstar Fiber. They learned of Firstar Fiber’s work from an industry publication and reached out to them.

Dale Gubbels holds the shredded and cleaned material.

Firstar Fiber continued cleaning and shredding to further prep the materials.

CEO Patrick Leahy stands in front of equipment describing its use.

The materials are then heated and extruded into the equipment.

The blue-green melted plastic is extruded from the carousel for the demonstration.
The melted plastic is extruded more, cools further and is removed for the demonstration.
Puck is removed and set to cool with other pucks for the demonstration.

For actual production, the melted extruded materials go into the form in the carousel and come out as lumber.

Green toned plastic Lumber is shown stacked on a pallet

Depending on the type of plastic added and temperatures, this can be turned into different types of lumber.

Visit later for more in our series on Firstar Fiber.

Firstar Fiber, Inc.
dba First Star Recycling
10330 “I” Street
Omaha, NE 68127
(402) 894-0003
https://www.firststarrecycling.com/

Center for Marine Debris Research
Hawaii Pacific University
1 Aloha Tower Drive
Honolulu, HI 96813
T:+1 808 544-0200
Toll Free:+1 866-CALL-HPU
https://www.hpu.edu/cncs/cmdr/