Protecting Health and Well-Being Is Stericycle’s Mission

Stericycle’s recent brand and website relaunch provides us an opportunity to renew our dedication to protecting what matters. Stericycle safeguards the world around us by protecting people, their trusted relationships, and the environment in a responsible, sustainable way. 

This includes working towards a more sustainable, shared future. Our innovative solutions make a difference in people’s lives, communities, and our planet by protecting their health and well-being. This helps customers preserve their brand reputation and operational continuity so they can focus on running their business. 

Our commitment to environmental sustainability protects the public from harmful waste and helps the healthcare industry progress towards sustainability and climate goals. Globally in 2020, Stericycle:

• Responsibly disposed of 1.5 billion pounds of medical waste, protecting the public from potentially infectious material.
• Safely disposed of more than 40 million pounds of pharmaceutical waste, ensuring they do not end up in waterways.
• Shredded and recycled 1.1 billion pounds of paper—safeguarding both confidential information and the environment.
• Diverted more than 104 million pounds of plastics from landfills with reusable sharps and pharmaceutical containers.

And we remain dedicated to environmentally responsible innovations for the future. “How can we serve more customers while driving fewer miles? How can we have equipment that’s more energy efficient? Those are a few of the things that we’re looking at and working on to ensure how we operate to help preserve the environment,” says Jennifer Koenig, Stericycle’s Vice President of Environmental, Social, and Governance.

Stericycle protects communities by providing compliance-based solutions and medical waste management, as well as disposal solutions such as sharps mail back kits and takeback envelopes and kiosks that offer safe household medication disposal. These services help keep potentially harmful items and substances out of communities.

Another way we protect patients is with our communication solutions, which modernize engagement and maximize outcomes. “We influence people to stay engaged in healthcare, or resume their care journey, in a way that best ensures their long-term health and well-being are protected,” says Matt Dickson, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Stericycle Communication Solutions. “We really focus on ensuring that people are engaging in the right venue of care, with the right physician, at the right time.”

Stericycle also protects people’s confidential data in sectors ranging from government to finance to healthcare via Shred-it® secure information destruction services. “By helping our customers safely dispose of documents and electronic media that contain sensitive information, we’re helping them with their responsibilities of protecting their customers and their employees,” says Michael Borromeo, Stericycle’s Vice President of Data Protection. “Whether our customers are operating in a traditional office, have work-from-home arrangements, or are working in a hybrid model, the services that we provide are a critical aspect of their own data protection and compliance efforts.”

Additionally, Stericycle continually rises to meet the challenges of healthcare crises. We quickly mobilized operations and created new programs to address the COVID-19 pandemic in nearly 40 states and were recognized with a Silver Stevie® Award for 2021 Company of the Year in the Health Products & Service category by the American Business Awards[HK1]  for the role we played in protecting the health and well-being of people, workplaces, and communities by safely and responsibly disposing of COVID-19 medical and vaccination waste.

Our efforts during the pandemic extended beyond waste disposal. “We educated our customers through the COVID-19 pandemic, holding numerous webinars to educate them on how they should handle that medical environment to help make sure the virus wasn’t transmitted,” says Jennifer Koenig.

And our experience with healthcare challenges predated the recent pandemic. Stericycle was tasked by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to dispose of all waste from the 2014 Ebola outbreak. We also provided essential regulated medical waste disposal during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, as well as Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Throughout the company’s history, we’ve dedicated our efforts to protecting people and communities. “Stericycle protects what matters. Each and every team member lives our brand and values,” says Jennifer Koenig.

To learn more about how our services can protect your business, visit Our Stories and subscribe to our newsletter below.