A body was found among incoming material at Rumpke's recycling facility on Vine Street in St. Bernard Friday, prompting the company to immediately halt operations and call police. Both the St. Bernard Police Department and the Elmwood Place Police Department are now investigating, and it is unclear how long the shutdown will last.
Rumpke confirmed that a body was discovered with incoming material at its Cincinnati recycling facility, according to WKRC. The company shut down the operation immediately and notified authorities, and service has not been impacted. The plant is at 5535 Vine Street, according to Hamilton County ReSource.
The facility uses automated optical sorters and human manual sorters to separate paper, cardboard, glass, and metals, per the City of Cincinnati.
Recent Safety Incidents
This is not the first time human remains have surfaced at the Vine Street plant. In 2009, workers discovered the body of a man later identified as Matthew Harmeyer on a conveyor belt among incoming cardboard, an incident that also forced an immediate shutdown and police investigation at the time. Rumpke reopened the site in November 2013, with a design capacity of up to 55 tons of recyclables per hour.
In July 2025, lithium-ion batteries caused two fires at the facility: one at the entrance on Tuesday and another inside a baler on Thursday. A separate fire, caused by fireworks in a garbage-truck load dumped at Oxford Community Park, was also reported by 91.7 WVXU.
In a separate case, Rumpke workers monitoring incoming trash at a Fields Avenue disposal facility in Columbus discovered the body of 45-year-old Dean K. Reinhard. Initial assumptions of an accidental death in a dumpster were revised after the county coroner determined the death was a homicide, per 10TV WBNS.
What Happens Next
In a Butler County case involving human remains found in a sewer, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was involved in their identification, according to WHIO TV.
It remains unclear whether authorities have identified the specific truck or municipality that delivered the material containing the body, what the coroner's preliminary findings on cause of death might show, or when sorting operations at the St. Bernard plant will fully resume.
