The story
Stericycle was founded in 1989 by Dr. James Sharp based on his business plan to address the Syringe Tide, where hypodermic needles and other medical waste washed up to the shores of New York and New Jersey. The Syringe Tide led to the Medical Waste Tracking Act, signed in 1988, establishing regulated medical waste management as an industry.
In 1992, Mark Miller stepped in as President and CEO, and as a result of Miller's leadership, Stericycle grew rapidly, going public in 1996 on the NASDAQ (ticker SRCL). The company's international business began in 1997 with a joint venture in Mexico. Since then, Stericycle has created services, tools and resources for healthcare professionals not only in the United States and Mexico, but also in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ireland, Japan, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom. In 1999, Stericycle acquired 200,000 customers from Allied Waste Industries after Allied acquired Browning Ferris Industries. Also In 1999, Stericycle began offering safety and medical compliance training services with the launch of its Stericycle Steri-Safe OSHA Compliance program.
Expansion
In the 2000s, Stericycle achieved growth through launching and/or acquiring complementary business lines, as well as continued international expansion. In 2003, Stericycle entered sharps waste management, acquiring Scherer Healthcare's existing practice and occasionally referring to parts of the service as “Bio Systems” in markets like Ireland. In 2004, Stericycle began providing medical waste disposal solutions in the United Kingdom with more international growth following. In 2008, Stericycle acquired its first hazardous waste removal company and in 2010 started its Communications Solutions business line with the acquisition of NotifyMD, among several other acquisitions. The acquisition of PSC Environmental Solutions in 2014 in a deal worth $275 million led to the formal establishment of Stericycle Environmental Solutions focused on hazardous waste. Finally, Stericycle's largest acquisition to date, Shred-it, occurred in 2015, for US$2.3 billion.
The company lost a contract to provide clinical waste services to GPs and pharmacies in Cumbria and north-east England in April 2017, when their competitor, Healthcare Environment Services put in a substantially cheaper offer, of £310,000, than theirs of £479,999. Stericycle then initiated a legal challenge against NHS England’s decision which was dismissed by the High Court of Justice in July 2018, and the company's behaviour severely criticised. Their commercial director Lindsay Dransfield was described as “a broadly unsatisfactory witness”. A confidential settlement was reached in 2019, ending the litigation.
In October 2017, a $295 million settlement was reached on behalf of a nationwide class of Stericycle customers, following a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of engaging in a price-increasing scheme that automatically inflated customers' bills up to 18 percent biannually, according to a news release from Hagens Berman, the Chicago-based law firm that represented the class.
In Spring 2022, Stericycle released the Safeshield antimicrobial medical waste container, which was designed for the storage and transport of regulated medical waste. The continued redesigning of products aims to condense the amount of container types provided by the company from over 150 to less than 20.
In June 2024, Stericycle accepted an offer from WM (formerly Waste Management Inc) to acquire the business for $7.2 billion. The acquisition was completed in November 2024, and the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of WM.
In January 2025 Urbaser completed the acquisition of Stericycle’s biosanitary waste management businesses in Spain and Portugal. The deal, announced in October 2024, has been completed according to the expected timeline.
From Wikipedia’s article on Stericycle, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7