Site Visit: Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center

During our research, the Local Loops group had the opportunity to visit the Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center in Central Ohio. Led on an informational tour of the facility by Education and Community Relations Assistant Lauren Monnin, we discovered that the facility boasts one of the highest recovery rates in the area: 98% of recyclable items that they are able to process make it to an end user who can use them as material. This is a very impressive number, considering the amount of trash they receive every day. This trash is dropped onto conveyor belts that bring it through a rigorous amount of human hands, optical sensors, magnetic drums, and other pieces of machinery that separate the type, size, and viability of various materials.

Speaking on how to incentivise recycling practices, Lauren had these key takeaways:

It Saves Space

Landfills take up a lot of space. They are also very expensive to expand and add new plots to. By reducing the amount of trash that is landfill-bound, we in turn reduce the amount of space that a landfill needs to take up.

Good for the Economy

Recycling is becoming more and more lucrative as the industry continues to expand. Along the waste stream, there are multiple different points at which new jobs will open up. Just in this resource center alone, there is a large workforce sorting, monitoring, and running the floor in which the conveyor belts run. There is also lots of profit for the recycling company itself along the stream. Service costs and selling the recycled media to an end user for production methods both provide a good stream of income to the company, which allows them to then turn that money into more efficient recycling practices, a larger staff, and innovations in the industry.