Rumpke Earns Service to Society award

The glass recycling process used by Ohio-based Rumpke Waste & Recycling has earned first place in the Service to Society category at the annual Innovation Index Awards, presented by the Dayton Business Journal (DBJ) and the Dayton (Ohio) Development Coalition.

According to DBJ, “The winner of this award exemplifies a commitment to increasing the prosperity and quality of life of the Dayton Region. Organizations applying for this award must be able to demonstrate how their innovative program has helped our community overcome hardships.”

Annually, more than 40,000 tons of glass bottles and jars collected from homes, restaurants, bars and other venues are processed at Rumpke Recycling’s glass plant in Dayton, which has been in operation more than 10 years. The plant received more than $4 million in upgrades in 2011, supported by a $500,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, accepted by the city of Dayton.

The projected impact of the glass recycling process will improve with continuous innovation, Rumpke says. In 2014, Rumpke launched a student engineering project with the University of Dayton Innovation Center to improve the glass recycling process. The cleanup system the engineering students are developing will reduce contamination of the glass plant’s feedstock by 20 percent, allowing Rumpke to process more efficiently and ultimately recycle more volume, according to the company.

In 2014, the Rumpke Recycling glass plant processed 39,058 tons of broken and mixed glass. According to data from a 2005 U.S. Senate report, this amount of recycled glass conserved 1,640,436 kilowatt hours of energy, 4,687 barrels of oil and 292,935 pounds of air pollutants from being released into the atmosphere. This glass recycling plant also stimulates job growth, Rumpke says. According to data from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 39 recycling jobs and 293 materials reuse jobs are created through this process.

Without the Rumpke Recycling glass plant, 7 million pounds of glass would be sent to a landfill every month, utilizing thousands of cubic yards of space. In the course of just one year, this glass recycling process conserves 84,000 cubic yards of landfill space in Ohio.

Rumpke employs more than 200 people in the Miami Valley and is a DRG3 (Dayton Regional Green) certified business.

Rumpke Waste & Recycling serves areas of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia. Rumpke divisions include Rumpke Recycling, Rumpke Portable Restrooms, The William-Thomas Group and Rumpke Hydraulics.