Recycling at home is easy and convenient with Rumpke Recycling. No matter what type of service you use, Rumpke Recycling’s single stream recycling process eliminates the sorting, and allows you to toss acceptable materials in your recycling container.*
Residential recycling options include:
Curbside Recycling: Rumpke Recycling provides you with a sturdy recycling container and collects your materials weekly in most locations and transports it to a Rumpke Recycling facility located near your home.
Drop-off Box Recycling: You can collect and deliver your recyclables to a Rumpke Recycling drop box located in your community. You can use the drop box at no additional charge (available only in participating communities). Click here to locate a drop box in your community.
Public Buy-Back Centers: If you live near a Rumpke Recycling Buy-Back Center in Dayton, Circleville or Ironton, Ohio, you can bring your recyclables for instant cash based on the market values of the materials you are recycling. Please contact your local buy-back center for a complete list of materials accepted and more information.
Acceptable Curbside Recycling Materials
- Newspaper
- All plastic bottles #1-7 (please remove lids)
- Steel food cans
- Aluminum cans
- Glass bottles and jars (please remove lids)
- Residential mixed paper, including: envelopes with and without windows, cereal boxes, construction paper, school papers, office paper, brown paper grocery bags.
- Clean pizza boxes, free of food or grease
- Cardboard boxes (broken down into 3 feet by 3 feet sections)
After Rumpke Recycling collects recyclable materials, they are brought to and processed at one of our Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF). At the MRF, recyclables are separated by category and prepared for their respective markets. Materials are then shipped to manufacturers who recycle them into new products.
Unacceptable paper materials:
- Text Books: the glue binding contaminates the paper
- Candy Wrappers: candy and sugars contaminate the paper
- Dirty plates, cups and napkins: these items have food particles contaminating the paper
- Facial tissue and paper towels: these items are contaminated
Unacceptable plastic materials:
Any plastic not in the shape of a bottle is not acceptable in Rumpke Recycling's residential programs, such as:
- Plastic bags (i.e. grocery bags) – take grocery bags back to grocery stores for recycling
- Butter tubs or whipped topping tubs *
- Plastic plates, cups and utensils
- Food trays, like the ones from frozen meals
- Toys or plastic wrappers/packaging
- Film containers
- Oil jugs
- Medical sharps or medical waste
* Whole Foods accepts #5 plastics such as butter and cream cheese tubs, yogurt containers and more
Unacceptable metals:
- Scrap metal (except at Rumpke Recycling buy-back centers)
- Pots and pans
- Coat hangers
- Paint cans
Rumpke Recycling's Public Buy-Back Centers accept a wide variety of scrap metals.
Unacceptable glass:
- Window glass
- Drinking glasses
- Fish tanks
- light bulbs
Frequently Asked Questions for Rumpke Recycling:
Why doesn’t Rumpke Recycling accept all types of plastics?
Rumpke Recycling accepts all plastic bottles. Common plastic bottles include soda bottles, milk jugs, laundry detergent bottles, shampoo bottles, and contact solution bottles. Plastic bottles are manufactured through a process called "blow molding." The end-users who buy the bottles for manufacturing of new products prefer the "blow molded" plastic bottles for their processes.
Other plastics, such as butter tubs and plastic food trays, are manufactured through a process called "injection molding." These plastics are are not accepted in Rumpke Recycling's residential programs.
* #5 plastics can be taken to Whole Foods to be recycled.
I have seen my recycling bin picked up by a truck that is marked Rumpke Recycling, but it looks like a Rumpke trash truck. What’s going on?
Rumpke Recycling trucks come in all shapes and sizes. Some recycling trucks are the older box trucks that have compartments that used to be used to separate the paper materials from the other recyclables. Other trucks look like our garbage trucks, but are marked as Rumpke Recycling vehicles. With the birth of single stream recycling in 2002, it was no longer necessary to pre-sort the materials. The box trucks, which offer limited capacity and demand smaller routes, are still used here and there, but for the most part, Rumpke Recycling is converting its fleet into traditional rear load trucks which offer much greater capacity and a compaction system.
What should I do with plastic bags, such as grocery bags?
Plastic bags cause major problems in Rumpke Recycling's mechanized single-stream equipment. They become entangled in the rotating discs, dramatically affecting the operating efficiency of the process.
Rumpke Recycling encourages residents to return plastic bags to the stores that used them. Nearly all major retail chains have collection bins for the plastic bags.
Rumpke Recycling offers segregated collection programs for all types of film plastic generated by commercial and industrial organizations.
Oil jugs are plastic. Can I place them in my recycling bin?
No, oil is considered household hazardous waste. Please contact your local solid waste management district for appropriate disposal or recycling options.
Paint cans are metal. Are they recyclable?
No, liquid paint is a household hazardous waste. Mix kitty litter with the paint to make the remaining liquid a solid. Place the paint can with the lid off at the curb with your trash for disposal at the landfill.
Are dishes, mirrors and window glasses accepted?
The single stream sorting technology employed to sort recyclables cannot sort these items. Also, the type of glass used to make these items is not useful to the manufacturers using the glass Rumpke Recycling processes.
How much waste does recycling divert from landfills annually?
On average, recycling diverts about 84,000 tons from the landfill each year.
