DAYTON, Ohio, November 15, 2016—It’s America Recycles Day and Rumpke Waste & Recycling Dayton is celebrating by unveiling a $1 million renovation at one of the country’s only mixed glass recycling centers.
Officials, guests and partners gathered at Rumpke Recycling Dayton today to learn more about Rumpke’s glass processing facility. “As the region’s recycling leader, Rumpke Waste & Recycling is always actively researching new opportunities to keep our landfills small and recycling efforts growing,” said Mike Bramkamp, regional vice president at Rumpke.
“We are honored to have the City of Dayton and the Ohio EPA’s support in this effort, both assisted by providing a collaborative $50,000 grant,” added Bramkamp.
Annually Rumpke Recycling’s Dayton Glass Facility processes 60,000 tons of broken glass. Glass is processed into raw materials for fiberglass insulation and glass container manufacturing.
“The glass we process at this site is collected from curbside and commercial recycling customers throughout Rumpke’s service regions in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Glass makes up 15-20 percent of the recycling that is collected. By creating this system Rumpke has developed the infrastructure to reduce the amount of trash going to the landfill while creating jobs and raw materials needed by our manufacturers,” said Steve Sargent, Rumpke’s director of recycling.
Facility renovations including extended conveyors, an enhanced dust collection system and technology to remove fine material such as paper labels, dust, dirt and other organic material from the glass, are designed to add consistency to the process and ensure a cleaner end product for manufacturers.
Rumpke Recycling Dayton Glass Processing also receives intellectual and research support from the University of Dayton. During the past couple of years students have joined Rumpke professionals to assess the process and material quality as well as identify improvements.
Rumpke Waste & Recycling, Inc. has been committed to keeping neighborhoods and businesses clean and green since 1932 by providing environmentally friendly waste disposal solutions. Headquartered near Cincinnati, Rumpke is one of the nation’s largest privately owned residential and commercial waste and recycling firms, providing service to areas of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia. Rumpke divisions include Rumpke Recycling, The William-Thomas Group and Rumpke Hydraulics. For more information, visit rumpke.com.
Rumpke’s founders began pulling rags, glass and metals out of the trash for reuse and recycling in the 1930s. Today Rumpke is widely recognized as Ohio’s recycling leader operating 10 recycling facilities company. Rumpke opened the glass processing facility in 2004. At the time, markets for the broken glass resulting (from mixed recycling collection and sorting) were weak or non-existent. Rumpke lead the glass recycling effort finding a way to convert broken glass into valuable raw materials.
America Recycles Day, an initiative of Keep America Beautiful, is the only nationally recognized day and community-driven national awareness event dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States.*
Since its inception in 1997, communities across the country have participated in America Recycles Day on November 15 to promote environmental citizenship, educate and encourage action. Through America Recycles Day, KAB empowers communities to educate and directly engage their citizens in the act of recycling.
*Description from the Keep America Beautiful website.
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Contact: Casey Harchaoui
casey.harchaoui@rumpke.com
