Rumpke’s 20-Year Glass Recycling Story

The year 2004 marks a defining milestone for Rumpke Waste and Recycling: 20 years in glass recycling. Three key players driving this initiative forward today highlight the company’s journey. They pause on risks; why leadership takes those risks; and where it’s landed Rumpke. And they answer the question, what next for the nearly century-old, family-run business?

When Rumpke opened its glass recycling facility in Dayton, Ohio in 2004, it had been struggling for years to get glass that was fed to its materials recovery facilities (MRFs) to other locations for further processing. There were no cost-effective options in the whole region, but there were good reasons to target the material. The Midwest is home to some of the country’s largest glass manufacturers, hungry for recycled content to meet sustainability goals and because working with recycled glass rather than virgin feedstock is less energy intensive.

“So, we decided to just build our own glass plant and do it ourselves. We wanted to make sure it was recovered and made into something new,” says Jeff Snyder, senior vice president of Recycling, Rumpke Waste and Recycling.

Today, the company collects and processes about 60,000 tons of glass a year.  Its primary off takers are Johns Manville who uses the material in fiberglass manufacturing and Anchor/Lapel who incorporates it into bottles, though there are others.  Fines, normally considered trash, are sold to the sandblasting industry.

While end markets have stayed strong over time, the fate of glass collection programs has been uncertain. They start, stop, and maybe start again.  Many MRFs argue that the material is not worth their time, effort, and money.

“Glass is abrasive and damages equipment. And MRF’s cannot sort it clean enough to make into bottles and jars or fiberglass insulation unless they invest in clean up systems or pay to move it to plants like ours,” Snyder says.

But the material was not worth much. Entering into a costly venture to try and make recycling it pencil out seemed like a doubled-edged sword.

In the beginning Rumpke only processed post-consumer glass from its own MRFs in Cincinnati and Columbus, sorting it there then shipping it to the Dayton facility for further processing.

Later, the glass team began working with operators in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Michigan with similar facilities as its own—becoming the “middleman” between MRFs and those who make new products.

Then came another step: developing glass depots to bring in industrial and commercial glass via municipalities, counties, and solid waste districts.

Making the model work hinges on ensuring that recycling is cheaper than landfilling.

That’s meant having to invest heavily in equipment to improve efficiency and quality that, hopefully, would reap pay off in time. Over the last five years Rumpke has dropped between $2M and $2.5M into the Dayton plant. Upgrades include a crusher to improve fine grind particle size consistency and a ducting system that pulls dust and organics away from glass while eliminating the need for workers to wear N95 masks.

Just this year Rumpke sunk over $1M into a sensor-based infrared optical sorter that removes plastics at the start of the process. Steve Furrow, plant manager of the Dayton MRF, which includes the glass plant, projects this sorter will increase cullet recovery by 20 percent.

The system has allowed automation to go to the next level, running more glass and of a better quality, Furrow says.

“We have to get it really clean to sell into markets, and we consider the cost to do that, as well as our operational costs,” Snyder says.

Payments are based on considerations like nonglass items and fines in the stream. The cleaner it is the more they pay—and the more they make.

Then they factor in freight—glass is heavy and expensive to move. So, targeting projects outside of a 200-mile radius is rarely cost effective. With that said, says Brad Cameron, glass plant manager, “Hauling is key in everything we do as [efficiency] boils down to operational cost and distance of travel. Staying within a 200-mile radius also gives us a good starting point to target new business.” 

Shards that are 3/8 inch or bigger go back into bottles and jars, which are sorted by color. Smaller pieces are sorted out and ground for use in fiberglass insulation. Color does not matter with fiberglass, but it has to be super clean –99.7 percent pure.

While companies like Rumpke have shown wasted glass can be turned into products, many MRFs still landfill it, finding it more cost effective than investing in technology to clean it if they generate negative revenue at the end of the day.

“But we do not take that approach. When we tell the public to put it in the bin, we have to make sure it gets turned into product. We invest in what we have to in order to make that happen,” Snyder says.

As the company does the legwork to scale, it tries to make the glass recycling proposition a bit safer for MRFs.

Now the glass team is trying to figure out new ways to get more of the material.

“We are next to Kentucky, and they have a big thing they do called making bourbon. How do we recycle all that glass from the hundreds of distilleries?” Synder says.

At the same time, focus turns to further expanding into bars and restaurants for more material as well as setting up more glass depots.

Management is working on increasing access and trust in the recycling industry.

“Glass is going to landfills. But I do not understand that if there is access to curbside recycling or drop offs. So, our focus now is on getting people to participate more in recycling, and if they do not have access, we will work to get them access,” Snyder says.

As Rumpke ventures further in its other business and service lines, the plan is to grow glass recycling alongside those expansions.

Since glass projects more than 200 miles from where it currently operates are cost-prohibitive, expanding other services into more cities and states will allow expansion of the glass operation.

“The future is bright, and we look for new opportunities. If we have to expand to provide more recycled material to the marketplace we will do it,” Snyder says.

“We are not afraid to look at new technology and new ways of doing things.”