April marks Earth Month, including Earth Day on April 22. Earth Day’s theme continues to build on last year’s campaign, “Invest in Our Planet,” which focuses on engaging governments, institutions, businesses, and citizens to do their part. At Stericycle, we believe in doing our part to help protect the environment. We deliver essential services that help protect the public from harmful waste and help our customers in the healthcare industry make progress towards their sustainability-related and climate-related goals.
In celebration of Earth Month, Stericycle has planned several sustainability-related initiatives for team members, customers, and the public. The month’s events include the launch of our Green Team, outdoor events for team members to get into nature, a healthcare waste management sustainability webinar, a community Shred-it® event in Chicago, and the distribution of Seal&SendTM consumer medication mail envelopes to our team members in certain offices in the United States.
Earth Day is not just one day at Stericycle. All year Stericycle delivers solutions and drives innovations that help protect the environment, people, and public health. Below are a few of our environmental stewardship and sustainability-related global accomplishments from 2022:
- Treated 1.5 billion pounds of medical waste, helping to protect the public from potentially infectious material.
- Shredded and recycled 1 billion pounds of paper—helping to safeguard our customers’ confidential information, which is the equivalent of the amount of paper that could be harvested from approximately 9 million trees.
- Helped our customers divert 101 million pounds of plastic from landfills through the use of reusable sharps waste and pharmaceutical waste containers rather than single-use containers.
- Incinerated 38 million pounds of pharmaceutical waste prior to disposal, helping to keep active pharmaceutical ingredients out of waterways.
Visit our Stericycle Corporate Responsibility Overview to learn more about our commitment to sustainability.