Sarpy County is working to keep their parks clean, but also keep less trash from ending up in landfills.
They are adding recycling bins throughout the county to not only encourage people to recycle, but also reduce littering.
Instead of drinking a soda and tossing it in the trash, Sarpy County is making it easier for you to recycle.
It's a small effort that goes a long way.
"Without the program or the container most people throw everything away and it goes into a landfill," Eddie Jarzobski.
Sarpy County and Second Nature want to keep the parks clean, not just by providing the public with trash cans but taking it to the next level with recycling bins.
"We can use these bins to spread the knowledge about recycling," said Angie Lauritzen.
25 of these bins are now in parks in Papillion and another 25 are in Gretna.
"There parks that do not have an option to recycle, so this provided an option for that," said Angie Lauritzen.
Nicole Chilcote says she enjoys a clean park and hopes community members actually use them.
"We want to keep our parks clean and safe for the kids, so if there's recycling people are more likely to throw trash away, than to leave it on a bench or the ground," said Nicole Chilcote.
Victoria and Chris Edres have small children, they bring to Halleck park often.
"She's picking up things that she finds and as a mom i'm like eew no don't pick that up, that's trash don't touch that," said Victoria Edres.
Just seeing these bins they say makes them want to utilize them.
"It's difficult for me to just throw away a plastic cup when I know there's a recycling bin ten ft away," said Victoria Edres.
Serving as a constant reminder for people to pick up after themselves.
"Seeing a nice, more cleaned up park definitely makes me feel more inviting and being able to relax while my kids play," said Chris Edres.
Cutting back on all the trash piling up in the landfills, but also a good opportunity for children to learn to recycle.
"The majority of the stuff at this park, we think 60 percent of it can be recycled materials, so if we didn't have these programs the majority goes to the trash," said Jarzobski.
