Rumpke Waste and Recycling customers will now be able to recycle even more material, including plastic tubs.

Yogurt containers, fruit cups, butter tubs, sour cream tubs, cottage cheese tubs and whipped topping tubs may now be placed in recycling carts with other bottles, cans, cardboard, cartons and paper.

Other plastics in a bottle or jar shape where the mouth is smaller than the base are accepted, too.

“As a leader in recycling, Rumpke recycles more than 1 billion pounds of material annually,” said Steve Sargent, Rumpke’s director of recycling. “There has been a lot of recent innovations in plastic recycling that are allowing for this expansion of our acceptable items list.”

In a news release from Rumpke, the company said it has secured long-term contracts with stable regional end users for this material that will convert the material into new plastic containers. 

Ninety-five percent of the recyclables Rumpke collects go to domestic end users with a vast majority going to end users in the Midwest.

“Rumpke appreciates the work The Recycling Partnership is doing in terms of circularity and joining manufacturers, recycling operators and end users to develop solutions to recycle more material,” said Jeff Snyder, Rumpke’s recycling senior manager.

A grant from The Recycling Partnership’s Polypropylene Recycling Coalition has helped Rumpke install additional recycling equipment to better sort tubs from other recyclables and educate customers about new acceptable items.

“Through the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, we are rapidly driving meaningful, measurable change by awarding grants to materials recovery facilities that will improve and increase the capture of polypropylene,” said Sarah Dearman, vice president of circular ventures for The Recycling Partnership.

“We congratulate Rumpke on their recent grant award from the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition and their quick work to get their polypropylene recycling program running and look forward to our continued partnership to encourage residents to recycle more, better," she said.

Seymour residents who get their recycling picked up by the city also are able to now recycle plastic tubs, too.

All items should be clean, empty and placed in recycling containers. They should be loose to ensure they can be properly sorted and recycled.