Rumpke opens recycling center in southern Indiana

Pictured above, from left: Peggy Dorsey, assistant commissioner of IDEM, Steve Sargent, director of recycling for Rumpke Recycling; Debbie Hackman, executive director of Jackson County Recycling District;
and Bill Rumpke III, vice president of Rumpke Recycling

Rumpke Recycling unveiled its new Medora Recycling Center in Medora, Indiana, during a grand opening ceremony Wednesday, Aug. 2. The project was partially supported by an $87,425 grant from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s (IDEM’s) Recycling Market Development Program. Rumpke funded the remaining balance of the $625,000 project.

Located at 546 S. County Rd. 870 W., the Medora Recycling Center features a 5,540-square-foot concrete pad, one side of which will be for single-stream recyclables and the other side of which will be for source-separated old corrugated containers (OCC), says Jonathan Kissell, Rumpke Waste & Recycling communications manager. An enclosure protects a baler and collected recyclables.

The locations also includes a conveyor line, an elevated presort platform and a 5-yard compaction unit that will be primarily used for single-stream recyclables, Kissell adds. 

Recyclables will come from residential and commercial customers in the surrounding area.

The conveyor line feeds the single-stream recyclables to a manual presort station, where contaminants are removed, Kissell says. The material then is conveyed outside the facility and into an enclosed compaction unit that compacts the material into a tractor trailer for transporting to Rumpke’s regional single-stream material recovery facility (MRF) in Cincinnati for processing.

The OCC from Rupke's commercial customers also is conveyed to a presort station to remove contaminants before being baled using a closed-door, manual-tie baler. Rumpke will transport the baled OCC directly to end users, Kissell says. 

“The Medora Recycling Center will allow Rumpke to expand its curbside and business recycling programs and improve accessibility to recycling throughout southern Indiana,” says Steve Sargent, Rumpke director of recycling. “We’ve already had hundreds of residents and businesses start recycling, and that number continues to grow. This represents an excellent public-private partnership to improve recycling.”

Rumpke employs 40 people at its Medora District, including drivers, mechanics, equipment operators, laborers, office personnel and managers/supervisors. The Medora District includes a landfill, recycling center, hauling operation and maintenance garage.

Rumpke owns and operates 10 recycling facilities, and the company says it recycled more than 1 billion pounds of material in 2016. Rumpke adds that it has invested more than $50 million in recycling infrastructure throughout the Midwest in the last six years.

Rumpke is one of the nation’s largest privately owned residential and commercial waste and recycling companies, providing service to areas of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. Rumpke divisions include Rumpke Recycling, Rumpke Portable Restrooms, The William-Thomas Group and Rumpke Hydraulics.