Rumpke recycling facility partially closed after fire

CINCINNATI — A large fire temporarily shut down Rumpke's largest recycling facility in the Cincinnati area.

The fire started around 4 a.m. Wednesday at the company's Vine Street facility in St. Bernard.

Director of Communications for Rumpke Waste and Recycling Amanda Pratt said 24 employees were working inside at the time of the fire. She said all employees immediately evacuated.

Crews from multiple fire departments were called to assist in the two-alarm fire.

"We are thankful that no one was injured," said Bridgett Biggs, Rumpke area safety manager. "The cause of the fire remains unknown. We are conducting a full investigation.”

According to the company, these types of incidents are occurring more often. There have been 16 fires reported at Rumpke's largest recycling center in Cincinnati.

“We continue to see fires in our trucks and our recycling facilities from customers placing potentially flammable (items) in recycling and trash containers,” said Biggs.

And it's happening across the country.

“In the waste and recycling industries, fires at facilities are a growing problem and a lot of it has to do with what we put in our trash or recycling bin," Pratt said. "Things like pool chemicals, some types of house cleaners, also like lithium-ion batteries which are the types of batteries that are rechargeable."

Propane tanks, cleaning products, full aerosol cans and pool chemicals are items that people have previously disregarded that could cause a serious incident, the company said.

“Placing these types of materials in the recycling and trash can cause a situation like we’ve seen today," Biggs said. “That’s why we ask our customers to review our collection guidelines.”

“Those can’t go into your household recycling bin or your trash can because what happens is when we compact those materials if they have the potential to combust and start a fire, so that fire might start in the back of the truck putting the driver in danger, or the community where that truck is driving, or it might happen at the recycling center," Pratt said.

You can find a list of potentially hazardous items here.

Pratt added they have people sifting through items at the recycling center, but she said workers can't catch everything.

That driver is picking up several stops on a route, hundreds of stops, may or may not see a small battery that material is getting tipped at a recycling facility and placed on a conveyor system. It’s moving at a of about 60 tons per hour, so there are people who stand there and try to sort out things that shouldn’t come to recycling," Pratt said. "But they don’t always catch the smallest batteries. If they don’t catch them and they make them into a bailing system or a type of our equipment they can do a lot of damage."

Rumpke's facility is partially closed but the company said it plans to fully reopen later Wednesday.

The company is asking customers to leave their recycling on the curb because service will continue Wednesday where possible.

Rumpke has invested in technology that has sensors to determine if there's extra heat. They've also invested in sprinkler systems and cameras.

“The more the recycling facility is broken or has to be down the more cost there is processing the material," Pratt said. "And, when we keep the processing cost down at the recycling facilities then we know we can keep the cost down for customers."

Rumpke opened its Cincinnati recycling facility more than 30 years ago. According to the company, it processes 700 tons of material each day collected from homes and businesses throughout Greater Cincinnati, the Miami Valley and Greater Louisville.

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