Diving certificate:
- Rumpke Waste & Recycling has opened its new 226,000-square-foot MRF in Columbus, Ohio, which it says is the “largest and most technologically advanced” in North America.
- The $100 million Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center uses Machinex equipment such as ballistic separators, trommels, 19 optical sorters and other artificial intelligence-based features. The facility can process up to 250,000 tons per year from over 50 counties in the state, Rumpke said.
- The facility will include an education center for the public as well as a career center for Rumpke’s CDL, leadership, continuing education and other employee programs. A research and development center will partner with schools and universities such as Ohio State to work on initiatives to improve recycling.
Diving insight:
Rumpke is one of the largest private recycling operations in the country, operating 15 recycling facilities in several states. The company views its new MRF as a strategic investment to boost recycling in the Columbus area. The facility, which opened June 1 and celebrated its grand opening Tuesday, is designed to provide enough recycling capacity to serve a growing commercial area and a population of about 3 million people, President Andrew Rumpke said in a statement.
“We must always plan strategically far into the future to meet our customers’ needs through investments, innovations and providing the best solutions for society’s waste,” said Rumpke.
The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio said the new facility will help divert more recyclables from landfills. About 96% of households in the region have access to a recycling program, “but most of the materials that enter homes end up in the landfill,” Joe Lombardi, SWACO’s executive director, said in a statement. “Central Ohio residents value their ability to recycle and have long expressed a desire to be able to recycle more of the materials that enter their homes.”
The new MRF features numerous operational efficiencies that the company expects will increase processing capacity from 160,000 to 250,000 tons per year compared to the old plant and speed up processing from 30 to 60 tons per hour.
“With all this technology, we are able to recover 98% of the recyclables that come into the facility,” said Jeff Snyder, Rumpke’s recycling manager, in an interview earlier this year. Materials that are missed in the sorting process go through another series of sorting machines, which helps further reduce the amount of recyclables, he said.
More than 90 percent of the material processed at the plant goes to end users in Ohio, the company said.
The facility also has three dumping levels: One is 32,000 square feet and is dedicated to residential materials, while another 11,000 square foot area is dedicated to commercial materials. A third 5,000 square foot dumping level is for sampling and testing only, which Andrew Rumpke said helps municipal and commercial customers evaluate their materials and programs.
Anticipating future technological changes, as well as changes in recycling material flows and raw material demand, was also part of the design process, the company said. MRF has cranes within the facility to move equipment and other elements to adjust the space. Other future offerings include public tours, which Rumpke plans to start in October.
This story first appeared in the Waste Dive: Recycling newsletter. Sign up for weekly emails here.
