Blog

Goodwill donates one million plastic bags for Nebraska’s first plastic asphalt road

A group of construction workers look at the new plastic-bag asphalt being poured on Foundry Rd. in South Sioux City, Nebraska on June 11th, 2025.

Goodwill plastic bags used in Foundry Road paving project

The state of Nebraska now has its first plastic asphalt road and Goodwill of the Great Plains donated one million plastic bags to make that happen.

Paving was started on Foundry Road, near the Siouxland Freedom Park in South Sioux City, Nebraska, on Wednesday, June 11th.

Tami Koenigs, Sustainability Manager at Goodwill of the Great Plains, speaks to an assembled crowd during a ceremony to commemorate the new plastic-bag asphalt road being poured on Foundry Rd. in South Sioux City, Nebraska on June 11th, 2025.

The 4,000-foot-long stretch of road has a base of six inches of regular asphalt, topped by three inches of the plastic bag asphalt mixture.

This not only keeps the bags out of the landfill, but the plastic asphalt road is expected to last longer and develop fewer potholes over time; this plastic asphalt mixture will also be used on bike paths in the area.

More than one billion tons of plastic bags are produced worldwide every year.

The Foundry Road project used approximately two million plastic bags; First Star Recycling also donated roughly one million plastic bags to the project.

Goodwill of the Great Plains has a vision of being a leader in environmental sustainability and plastic isn’t the only thing we recycle!

To find out more about our ongoing sustainability efforts, please visit https://www.goodwillgreatplains.org/sustainability

2024 – A Year of Good

A look back at what we accomplished together in 2024

Thanks to your generous support, Goodwill of the Great Plains made a difference in more than 32,000 lives in 2024 – helping hundreds of people get jobs, changing thousands of lives and diverting millions of pounds from landfills.

Take a deeper dive into those numbers below:

A look at how Goodwill of the Great Plains positively impacted the communities it serves in 2024 - showing various statistics and numbers related to programming, pounds of material diverted from landfills, pounds of material recycled and more.

Together, we were able to do a lot of GOOD!

To find out more about the programs and services offered by Goodwill of the Great Plains, please visit goodwillgreatplains.org

Goodwill’s new Sioux Center store opens for business

The new Sioux Center store will now be open seven days a week

A group of people stand behind a blue ribbon while holding a giant pair of scissors, as they celebrate the opening of the new Goodwill of the Great Plains retail store in Sioux Center, Iowa on Thursday, Feb. 20th, 2025.

The newest Goodwill of the Great Plains retail store, the organization’s 23rd overall and 8th in Iowa, is now open for business!

Dozens of people from the community, including members of the Sioux Center Chamber of Commerce, braved the cold weather Thursday morning, Feb. 20th, to celebrate with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The store will now be open seven days a week, with the following hours:

Monday – Saturday 9am to 9pm
Sunday 10am to 6pm

Donations can now be dropped off during all regular business hours, as well.

When you shop at Goodwill, including the new Sioux Center store, you can be confident that your money stays local – .87 cents of every dollar spent at your local Goodwill goes directly back to fund job training and placement programs.

To find out more about Goodwill and its mission of helping people find meaningful community employment, please visit www.goodwillgreatplains.org.