Dive Brief:
- Rumpke Waste & Recycling has opened its new 226,000-square-foot MRF in Columbus, Ohio, which it says is the “largest and most technologically advanced” in North America.
- The $100 million Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center uses Machinex equipment such as ballistic separators, trommel equipment, 19 optical sorters and other artificial intelligence-assisted features. The facility can process up to 250,000 tons a year from over 50 counties in the state, Rumpke said.
- The facility includes an education center for the public, as well as a career center for Rumpke’s CDL, leadership, continuing education and other employee programs. A research and development center aims to partner with schools and universities, like Ohio State, to work on recycling improvement initiatives.
Dive Insight:
Rumpke is one of the largest private recyclers in the country, with 15 recycling facilities in multiple states. It sees its new MRF as a strategic investment to boost recycling in the Columbus area. The facility, which opened June 1 and celebrated its grand opening on Tuesday, aims to provide enough recycling capacity to serve a growing commercial development area and a population of around 3 million, said President Andrew Rumpke in a statement.
“We must always strategically plan well into the future to meet our customers’ needs by investing, innovating and providing the best options for society’s waste,” Rumpke said.
The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio said the new facility will help divert more recycled material from disposal. About 96% of homes in the region have access to a curbside recycling program, “yet most materials entering homes are sent to the landfill,” said SWACO Executive Director Joe Lombardi in a statement. “Central Ohioans value their ability to be able to recycle, and for a long time have expressed their desire to be able to recycle more of the materials entering their homes.”
The new MRF features numerous operational efficiencies that the company expects will increase processing capability from 160,000 tons to 250,000 tons a year compared with the old facility. It also speeds up processing from 30 to 60 tons an hour.
“This allows us the ability, with all this technology, to recover 98% of the recyclables that come into the plant,” said Jeff Snyder, Rumpke’s director of recycling, in an interview earlier in the year. Materials missed in the sorting process goes through another series of sorters, which helps further lower residuals, he said.
More than 90% of the material processed at the facility goes to end users in Ohio, the company said.
The facility also has three tipping floors: One is 32,000 square feet and meant for residential material, while another 11,000-square-foot area is meant for commercial material. A third 5,000-square-foot tipping floor is just for sampling and auditing, which Andrew Rumpke said helps municipal and commercial customers evaluate their material and programs.
Planning ahead for future technological changes and for changes to recycling material streams and commodities demand was also part of the design process, the company says. The MRF has cranes inside the facility to move equipment and other features to adjust the space. Other future offerings include public tours, which Rumpke plans to start in October.
This story first appeared in the Waste Dive: Recycling newsletter. Sign up for the weekly emails here.
