Waste, recycling & composting

What to ask before you sign

Take this into the call. No vendor gets to edit this list.

1. What is the all-in weekly or monthly cost including fuel, environmental, and administrative surcharges? Ask for one number, not a base rate.
2. What is the contract term, the auto-renewal window, and the written notice required to cancel? Multi-year auto-renewals are the norm — read before signing.
3. Is my container correctly sized and my pickup frequency right for my actual volume? Over-sized and over-frequent is the default and it is billed to you.
4. Can I add food waste composting, what does it require of my staff, and does diverting food waste let me reduce trash service?
5. Are there caps on annual price increases, or can the rate move at will?
6. What happens if a container is contaminated or overloaded — what is the surcharge?
7. Who is responsible for the enclosure area staying clean? Inspectors look at your dumpster area.
8. Clear liners or dark? Clear lets a manager see what is actually going into the bin — portioning waste, product going out the back door, recyclables in the trash — and dark hides all three. Some recycling programs require clear bags anyway. It is a small line item that answers a question you cannot otherwise audit.

Listings

Listed alphabetically. Order is never sold or influenced by sponsorship.

• Kimble Companies

  Ohio-based waste, recycling and portable sanitation company serving commercial customers across eastern and northeastern Ohio.

  Services: Commercial waste · Recycling · Roll-off containers · Portable sanitation

  Serves: Portage, Summit, Geauga, Cuyahoga, Medina counties

  Ohio-owned and strongest on the eastern side of the region — worth a quote if your address is out past the county line where national route density thins out.

  800-201-0005

  Verified Aug 9, 2026 · number checked against 1 source

• Republic Services

  National waste and recycling company with a restaurant industry service line covering waste, recycling, organics and grease-adjacent programs.

  Services: Commercial waste · Recycling · Organics

  Serves: Cuyahoga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Summit, Portage, Geauga counties

  Quotes route through a local sales contact rather than a published number. Ask for the container size, the lift frequency, the fuel and environmental surcharges, and the contract term in writing before signing — surcharges and auto-renewal are where waste contracts get expensive.

  Verified Aug 9, 2026 · number unconfirmed

• Rumpke Waste & Recycling

  Regional waste and recycling hauler with a restaurant-specific service line covering front and rear-load dumpsters, compactors, cardboard recycling and scheduled pickups.

  Services: Dumpster service · Compactors · Cardboard recycling · Scheduled collection

  Serves: Cuyahoga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Summit, Portage, Geauga counties

  Ask what container size and pickup frequency they are quoting against your actual volume rather than your square footage — an undersized container on a busy corner is how lids end up propped open, which is a code problem before it is an odor problem.

  800-828-8171

  Verified Aug 9, 2026 · number checked against 1 source

• Rust Belt Riders

  Worker-owned cooperative collecting food waste from Cleveland businesses and composting it into soil through its sister company, Tilth. An alternative to sending kitchen organics to landfill in your regular trash service.

  Services: Commercial food waste collection · Composting · Finished soil products

  Serves: Cuyahoga County

  Worth running the numbers on: diverting food waste often lets you cut trash pickup frequency or container size, and waste hauling is usually oversized to begin with — so this can be cost-neutral or better rather than an added expense. Pricing is not published; ask about pickup frequency, container type, and what your staff has to do differently. Email info@rustbeltriders.com.

  2701 St Clair Ave NE, Cleveland, OH 44114
  216-800-4651

  Verified Aug 8, 2026 · number checked against 3 sources

• Sunburst Environmental Services

  Commercial environmental services including waste stream management, cleaning and disposal work for businesses across Northeast Ohio.

  Services: Commercial environmental services · Waste stream management

  Serves: Summit, Portage, Cuyahoga, Geauga counties

  Useful for the jobs that fall outside a routine hauling contract — the one-off cleanout, the problem no scheduled route covers. Confirm scope in writing, since this kind of work is priced per job rather than per lift.

  330-637-0798

  Verified Aug 9, 2026 · number checked against 1 source

• WM (Waste Management) — Cleveland

  National waste and recycling company with Cleveland-area service, including restaurant dumpster and compactor service, recycling and organics programs.

  Services: Dumpster service · Compactors · Recycling · Organics

  Serves: Cuyahoga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Summit, Portage, Geauga counties

  Ask whether an organics or food-waste diversion route actually serves your address before pricing it — availability varies by route rather than by company policy.

  866-849-0076

  Verified Aug 9, 2026 · number checked against 1 source

Related guides

• What has to be in the kitchen before your inspection

  The physical things that must be present, stocked, and working on the day the inspector walks in — plus the ones people forget and fail on.

• Snow, ice, dumpsters and odor — the outside of the building

  Ohio's natural accumulation rule and why clearing a lot badly can create liability that doing nothing would not have, which de-icer to use on concrete, and what the code actually requires of your dumpster pad.