Rumpke Recycling's St. Bernard/Center City Material Recovery Facility (MRF) recently installed a new and innovative processing system called single-stream recycling.

The system is designed to separate the mixed stream of recyclables (papers, glass, plastics and metals) that are collected from residential curbside customers. Not only does single stream make recycling easier for customers it also eliminates the need for item separation. The system also produces a high quality mix of materials appropriate for marketing to vendors.

How does single-stream recycling work? Once the recyclables are collected, the materials are transported via a conveyor through a presort house where trash, cardboard and municipal scrap are removed by hand. The materials then fall on two large, upward sloping screens. Each screen consists of a series of shafts which have more than 210 rubber discs. The shafts rotate at a high rate of speed as the rubber discs sort the materials according to size to determine which direction each item should take. The discs carry paper items upward to another conveyor for further manual sorting. The rigid containers fall back on the conveyor and are carried to another area in the MRF for sorting.

Cincinnati's MBF is able to process approximately 300 torts of materials per day.

"In order for this process to be successful to Rumpke, we need to keep the same high quality, marketable materials that were captured before," said Steve Sargent, general manager, recycling operations. "With this new technology, we've consistently seen tlie quality-we need while recovering more rnaterials."

For Rumpke, single-stream recycling promotes eff~cient use of existing truck fleets. Since rear-load packer trucks are used, there is no need to have separate recycling trucks. Once garbage routes are completed and the load is dumped, that same truck can be used for recycling routes.

"This is the direction our industry is heading," states Sargent. "We had to pass the frst hurdle of producing a salable product. That's done. Now we are focused on improving collection efficiencies."

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Acceptable Materials in the Curbside Recycling Program
FIBERS (MIXED PAPERS) Newspapers with glossy ad inserts, magazines, catalogs and telephone books should be placed together in a brown paper grocery sack. Place sack(s) inside or beside your bin, or - in case of rain - place under the bin. Not presently accepted are pizza boxes. Grease and food contamination of cardboard renders it unacceptable.		GLASS Clear, brown, green and blue glass food and beverage containers and jars are accepted. Please remove caps and rinse. Paper labels do not need to be removed. Metal lids may also be placed in the bin. Not presently accepted are window glass, mirrors, light bulbs, drinking glasses or mugs, and ovencooking glassware (Pyrex).
PLASTICS Plastic milk containers; soft drinlc, shampoo, laundry and detergent bottles displaying the recycling logo with the number 1 or 2. Please remove all caps or lids and rinse. Labels do not need to be removed. Not presently accepted are wide-mouth containers such as mar~garine bowls or whipped topping containers; plastic flatware; cassette and compact disc cases; children's toys; oil jugs, plastic bags and plastic buckets.		METALS Aluminum and bi-metal beverage cans, steel soup and food -cans, and empty aerosol cans are accepted. Please rinse and drain cans. Labels do not need to be removed. Lids may be placed inside cans. Not presently accepted are pots or pans, coat hangers, and scrap steel

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BENEFITS OF RECYCLING		Conserves natural resources Saves space in landfills Decreases air and water pollution
SERVICE		Residential and Commercial Recycling
SERVICE AREA		Greater Cincinnati area Approximately 200,000 customers in contracted areas More than 45,245 subscription customers Largest residential recycling in Greater Cincinnati Largest residential recycler is Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana
AMOUNT OF MATERIAL PROCESSED		Approximately 6,600 tons-of materials per month
MATERIALS PROCESSED		Aluminum - 75 tons per month Corrugated cardboard - 1,500 tons per month Fibers (papers) - 4,400 tons per month Glass - 350 tons per month Plastics: PETE (No. 1 plastic) - 68 tons per month HDPE (No. 2 plastic) - 92 tons per month Steel - 106 tons per month Telephone directories - 11 tons per month

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