Sustainability: Health & Safety

Rumpke finished 2024 with approximately 4,200 employees. Part of Rumpke’s mission includes the safety and growth of its people, and while more than 100 employees are actual members of the Rumpke family, Rumpke strives to treat all employees as members of an extended Rumpke family.

Rumpke achieves this through a thorough employee onboarding process, periodic employee surveys and exit surveys. Transparent communication from leadership throughout the organization is also key. This occurs through face-to-face meetings, videos and the MyRumpke intranet, which received about 440,000 visits in 2024. Videos and photos highlighting new infrastructure, new benefits and other company announcements received the most views and interactions. Rumpke also produced a series of videos highlighting real-life company scenarios depicting the company values of teamwork, quality, perseverance, growth and responsibility.

"To me, sustainability is all about endurance and long-term value. As a Total Rewards Manager, it’s important that Rumpke provides benefits, compensation and wellness programs that endure and that support our employees in their long-term health, growth and financial security."

– Kelly Lynch, Senior Total Rewards Manager

Rumpke is consistently reviewing employee benefits and compensation to remain competitive in the waste and recycling industry. In 2024, benefits included extended vacation time based on tenure, an expansion of maternity leave and the addition of paternity leave. Rumpke also contracted an independent provider to launch a full compensation study. Individualized results were shared with managers so they could start necessary adjustments.

In 2024, Rumpke expanded its Rumpke University program by adding instructors and new in-person courses. In addition, Rumpke bolstered its online training available to all employees through the Human Resources Information System (HRIS). To date, nearly 100 online classes for human resources, leadership, media, safety, skills, technology, software and wellness are available for all team members.

Safety is paramount at Rumpke. The company hosts monthly, in-person, in-service meetings in each District and with each line of business separately. In total, there are more than 50 in-service meetings monthly.

New hire training occurs weekly with a complete company overview and specialized training for individual roles. Additionally, Rumpke’s safety team conducted four safety workshops in 2024, as well as quarterly Region Safety Stand Downs with management.

Ensuring safety is not only about meetings and in-person training, but also about observing the team and offering real-time and on-going coaching in the field. Rumpke conducted 5,729 driver observations, 1,939 mechanic observations and 1,259 equipment observations in 2024.

Rumpke’s safety team also conducts mock audits of our facilities to ensure proper housekeeping, LOTO (Lock Out, Tag Out), DOT (Department of Transportation) and OSHA (Occupation Safety and Health Administration) compliance. We conducted 53 audits in 2024.

In recent years Rumpke’s OSHA and incident ratings have improved.

In 2024, Rumpke implemented Netradyne safety monitoring systems in 2,500 of its hauling vehicles, giving us access to real-time driver skills and behaviors. The system issues safety reminders to drivers as they are driving and scores their skills. Since implementation of the system throughout 2024, Rumpke is noting a consistent 5% increase in safety scores monthly.

Rumpke is further enhancing safety by updating numerous policies and training programs. Entry Level Driver Training revisions, a complete overhaul of New Hire Orientation Training, introduction to a new Chargeable Accident Process change, a revised Field Trainer Process, an enhanced Job Hazard Analysis training and increased Rumpke University use are all priorities for 2025.

Rumpke will continue to make our safety culture top priority to reduce incidents and injuries and ensure the safest work environment for all employees in all positions.

Compliant to the Core

Rumpke not only maintains safety compliance, but we strive endlessly to meet or exceed environmental compliance standards set by local, state and federal agencies, like local health departments, and state and federal environmental agencies, such as the EPA. In 2024, our engineering, landfill and maintenance teams audited every Rumpke facility. Additionally, Rumpke participated in 341 inspections conducted

by local, state and federal regulators. Proactively, we completed 9,110 compliance tasks.

Celebrating Excellence

Employee accomplishments are celebrated with recognition on social media, on the company’s intranet and in newsletters, as well as through certificates, plaques and awards within their teams and departments. For example, drivers scoring the highest for safety are recognized quarterly with a championship belt. Top drivers are nominated for the National Waste & Recycling Association’s Driver of the Year Awards. The IT team recognizes its top performers through an electronic recognition score keeper. The HR team also has its own recognition program. Sales team members receive a variety of awards annually at Rumpke Enhancement Day (RED) including the Mission Master award, top sales team and top performer awards. Rumpke also selects other team members throughout the year who display the company’s core values of quality, growth, teamwork, responsibility and perseverance.

Employee tenures are recognized every five years with acknowledgement from their direct supervisors and a gift from the company. HR sends reminders to managers to ensure this recognition occurs. Catalogs with gift options are mailed to employee homes.

In the future, Rumpke will continue to enhance employee benefits by adding a corporate discount program through PerkSpot, which gives employees discounts at a variety of retail, restaurant and service establishments. Rumpke will also enhance RED by adding a second full day of learning for its sales group. Rumpke will launch a new event called DRIVE (Day for Rumpke Innovation, Values & Excellence). This will be a conference and celebration for our operations and maintenance managers to hone skills, share best practices and celebrate success.