In honor of Earth Day, Rumpke, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Hamilton County Solid Waste District gathered at the construction site of Rumpke’s new recycling center to discuss the importance of glass recycling and showcase the revolutionary glass recovery system that will be installed at the plant thanks to a $250,000 grant from the Ohio EPA and Hamilton County Solid Waste District.

With 10 recycling centers, Rumpke has become Ohio’s recycling leader and this glass recycling effort is another option designed to spur recycling growth.

“This partnership ensures that when a resident recycles a glass bottle the result is economic growth, new jobs and new products, and overall, far-reaching environmental benefits,” said Jeff Rumpke, Vice President, Rumpke Consolidated Companies, Inc. (Pictured at Right)

The grant finances equipment necessary to screen, clean and sort glass at Rumpke’s new recycling center. The prepared material will be transported to Rumpke’s Dayton, Ohio facility for further processing. The processed glass is then shipped to Owens-Illinois and Johns Manville to create glass containers and home insulation.

“Today’s grant will help save landfill space and provide Ohio manufacturers with a necessary raw ingredient,” Ohio EPA Director Scott Nally said at the Earth Day Event. “Ohio’s glass makers estimate they could use an additional 165,000 to 185,000 tons of cullet each year. Because 90 percent of Ohio’s post-consumer glass ends up in landfills, we saw an opportunity for the state to help harvest a raw material from what would have been a waste stream.”

In addition to securing recycling growth, the grant also helps create jobs. More than 100 employees will be connected to the glass recycling effort at Rumpke’s St. Bernard facility. Several hundred more jobs are creating at Rumpke’s Dayton facility and through the glass manufacturing process.

Rumpke first invested in glass recycling in 2004 with the construction of its own, one-of-a-kind, glass processing facility in Dayton. With a $500,000 Ohio Department of Natural Resources grant, Rumpke completed a $4 million upgrade of the facility in 2011 to further invest in enhanced glass recycling technology.

Learn more about this week’s event by watching this short video.

About the author: Molly Yeager is a senior corporate communications coordinator for Rumpke.