During the planning phase of the Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center, a $100 million facility now operational in Columbus, Ohio, Jeff Snyder, Rumpke's Senior Vice President of Recycling & Sustainability, and his team toured material recovery facilities (MRFs) nationwide to study innovation and technological advancements in the industry.
Source: Waste Today Magazine
The Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center, now open in Columbus, is deemed the most extensive and technologically advanced recycling facility in North America. It has the capacity to handle over 250,000 tons of recyclable materials per year from more than 50 Ohio counties.
This will be the model for future MRFs.
Rumpke Waste & Recycling, headquartered in Cincinnati, initially expanded to Columbus in 1991 and has operated a MRF capable of recycling 160,000 tons annually since 2011. The new recycling center was designed to accommodate the projected growth in and around Columbus, one of the country's fastest-growing metropolitan areas, expected to reach 3 million residents in the next two decades.
What this region needed was more capacity to capture that growth. We have this capacity that is going to be able to capture the growth in Columbus while also allowing us to continue to drive more recycled material into the circular economy.
Tailored to Rumpke's equipment layout specifications, the 226,000-square-foot facility includes a line custom-crafted by Machinex, incorporating four ballistic separators, 19 optical scanners, and 10 artificial intelligence (AI) units. With the aid of AI technology, the company's optical sorters can distinguish aluminum foil from used beverage cans (UBCs), separate colored bottles and thermoformed plastic containers from clear polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, and more, as highlighted by Snyder.
We’re welcoming in communities, municipalities, schools, neighbors.
Within the facility, nine vacuums remove plastic bags from the line at transition points along the conveyor belt. Additionally, the facility features two ceiling-mounted cranes for equipment maintenance or reconfiguration and a hydraulic lift "tipper" for unloading 50-foot material trailers.
Operating at speeds of 60 tons per hour, the facility aims to process between 150,000 and 250,000 tons annually from 50 Ohio counties, with an expected recovery rate of 98%. The center employs 60 individuals, including 28 sorters and a dedicated education team.
Through the Columbus Recycling & Resource Center, Rumpke is revolutionizing its community engagement and public trust-building strategies. The facility includes public areas and educational zones, such as an education center with interactive displays developed in collaboration with COSI (Center of Science and Industry) and a research center designed with The Ohio State University.
Rumpke distributes recovered materials to manufacturers within a 250-mile radius of the facility, with 80% of materials supplied to companies with Ohio operations, including Eastman, Pratt, and Owens-Illinois. The end products align with those produced by the original Columbus MRF.
This facility is about scale. It’s scaling up to meet the demands of the growing Columbus area. And we’re always looking at and researching what’s the next material type that we
To enhance local sustainability initiatives and transparency, customers can utilize the center's Sample Station, featuring a separate tipping floor. The sampling capabilities offer real-time recycling audits to assist customers in evaluating the success of their recycling programs or identifying necessary adjustments.
Rumpke Waste & Recycling stands as one of the nation's largest privately owned waste and recycling companies, serving regions in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and West Virginia. The company manages landfills, transfer stations, and 15 recycling facilities, including MRFs in Cincinnati and Columbus, along with a glass processing facility in Dayton, Ohio.
