Rumpke Waste & Recycling exists to protect the environment. From our highly-engineered landfills designed to protect the environment from society’s waste – to our technologically advanced recycling centers made to process hundreds of millions of pounds of recyclables. In honor of Earth Day this month (April 22), we compiled a list of 22 ways Rumpke is green.

1. Regional Landfills: Trash isn’t long hauled to Rumpke sites. We operate 11 regional landfills that are centrally located to dispose of our customer’s trash.

    

2. Landfill Construction: Landfills are designed to protect ground water and soil from trash. A series of protective liners inside the landfill ensure trash stays inside the landfill. Essentially, it is like a giant Tupperware container. 

    

3. Water Reuse: At Rumpke’s landfills, we collect and reuse rainwater to use in our water trucks and street sweepers.

    

4. Landfill Gas to Energy Plants: Rumpke currently operates two landfill gas to energy plants with a third coming online next month. The plants capture gas produced from decomposing garbage and convert it into either electricity or natural gas to power homes and vehicles.  

    

5. CNG Trucks: Rumpke has more than 1,500 vehicles on the road each day. These vehicles travel millions of miles annually to provide Rumpke customers with reliable service. Since 2011, Rumpke has been employing new technology to make some of those miles greener by utilizing trucks fueled with compressed natural gas (CNG) technology. Rumpke has nearly 200 of these trucks in its fleet and is committed to expanding its CNG fleet. In areas where CNG fueling stations are available and an economically viable option, Rumpke further invests only in this type of technology.

    

6. Recycling Options: As a leader in the recycling industry, Rumpke offers customers an opportunity to reduce waste through recycling.

    

7. Green Teams: Rumpke has green teams within its own organization to encourage recycling participation, waste reduction and energy conservation.

    

8. Bye, Bye Styrofoam: Rumpke put a squash on ordering polystyrene plates. Employees are encouraged to bring in their own reusable plates.

    

9. Single Stream Recycling: Rumpke adopted single stream recycling in the early 2000s to allow customers to mix all of their recyclables in one container and Rumpke to collect the recyclables in one compartment of a truck. The move increased recycling participation as well as ensured we maximized space used in collection trucks.

    

10. Local Vendors: Rumpke’s purchasing department strives to use local vendors to reduce long hauling times to our site.

     

11. Dumpster Recycling: When a dumpster is beyond repair, Rumpke recycles the metal.

     

12. Old Furniture Reuse: Rumpke maintains an inventory of desks, chairs, file cabinets, etc., that aren’t currently being used and reuses when new facilities are built.

     

13. Haul-it-Away (Greater Cincinnati area): Rumpke Haul-it-Away is a full-service garbage collection service. Our team can remove all unwanted items such as old furniture, appliances and construction debris from any location at a home or business.  No need to prepare or bring items to the curb!  The Haul-it-Away team will collect the items directly from basements, garages or other storage locations and properly dispose of them through recycling, charitable donations or landfill disposal. 

     

14. Responsible Printing: When printing material to send to our customers, Rumpke prints on recycled paper.

     

15. Customer Education: Rumpke is committed to educating our customers about the importance of proper waste disposal and recycling through presentations and facility tours. Annually, thousands of people tour our sites.

     

16. Glass Recycling: While other recycling companies shy away from glass recycling, Rumpke embraces it, investing millions into technology to recover and recycle glass (60,000 tons per year- to be exact).

     

17. Recycling Audits: Our team works with businesses to review their waste stream to determine which discarded materials can be recycled.

     

18. Sustainability Policy: Rumpke developed its own sustainability policy to ensure we are reducing its own environmental footprint.

     

19. Tire Recycling: Rumpke offers tire recycling in much of its service region. We operate a tire recycling facility in Southwest Ohio. The shredded tire chips are often used as landfill liner or separation barriers.

     

20. Truck Overhauls: Rumpke makes sure we are getting the most out of each truck. On average, each truck lasts 14 years. We have a scheduled maintenance plan that includes a complete overhaul midlife.

     

21. Construction Recycling: Rumpke knows there is a lot of waste in the building process. We offer a construction recycling program that can also help companies achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

     

22. Compost: Yup. We do that too. Rumpke operates a yard waste compost facility in Colerain Township and we collect, and in some areas, haul yard waste produced by our customers to regional composting facilities as well.

Now – we challenge you to find 22 ways your household is green!

Happy Earth Day!

About the author: Molly Yeager, Corporate Communications Supervisor