Dive Brief:
- Rumpke opened a new $32 million recycling facility last year in St. Bernard, OH, but the company has noted a significant challenge—reducing the number of hazardous materials and non-recyclables entering the plant.
- Brad Dunn, the manager of Rumpke recycling operations at the facility, said a substantial volume of improper materials are being discarded in recycling collection bins, including some that put workers at risk for injury. He believes educating the public can help reduce how many non-recyclables make their way to the plant.
- The plant currently processes five times more waste than initially anticipated when it opened. But Dunn said that isn't really a good thing since, in this case, the higher volume is driven by a substantial amount of non-recyclables entering the facility.
Dive Insight:
Generally, 2% of materials discarded in the recycling bin should actually be thrown into the trash. The numbers at the Rumpke facility comprise a higher percentage than that, though it remains unclear what the exact numbers are. This facility processes approximately 700 million pounds of recycling annually. The plant is also hyper-vigilant about improper materials since its previous facility was destroyed by fire in April 2012 after a flammable item was mistakenly discarded with a load of recyclables.
Rumpke isn’t the only facility experiencing sorting issues. At a recent recycling conference, panelists spoke about the challenges facing operators. The main barrier to achieving efficiency in recycling plants is the slow sorting lines caused by consumers placing non-recyclables into the recycling bin.
One of the speakers, Ron Novas, said that his employer, Miami Waste Paper, doesn’t accept co-mingled recycling, leading to a low amount of claims. However, this solution isn’t an option for the Rumpke facility in Ohio, which handles residential waste from 55 regions across three states.