DOJ and EPA announce $9.5M settlement with Stericycle

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice have announced a settlement agreement with Stericycle Inc., a medical waste company acquired by Houston-based WM in 2024, for systemic, nationwide violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and related regulations in the operation of its former hazardous waste management business from May 5, 2014, through April 6, 2020.

This settlement resolves Stericycle’s failures to properly manage hazardous waste, accurately maintain required manifest records when transporting hazardous waste and timely submit information for thousands of manifests to EPA’s electronic manifest database, the e-Manifest system.

The proposed stipulation and order of settlement agreed to by Stericycle requires payment of a $9.5 million civil penalty, one of the largest civil penalties ever paid for RCRA violations, according to the EPA. The settlement is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

“Stericycle repeatedly failed to ensure the proper transport, management, storage and ultimate disposal of hazardous waste—a job that they were paid to do and entrusted to perform on behalf of customers nationwide,” says Acting Assistant Administrator Cecil Rodrigues for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “EPA is committed to ensuring companies comply with the law and to protecting communities from the potential risks associated with the mismanagement of hazardous wastes.”

Adds Matthew Podolsky, a Southern District of New York attorney representing the United States: “Today, we hold Stericycle responsible for flouting hazardous waste management requirements while operating a nationwide hazardous waste business and risking significant potential harm to human health and the environment. This penalty should put other waste management firms on notice that we will hold them accountable when they shirk their legal responsibilities and put the public and environment in harm’s way.” 

Stericycle operated a nationwide hazardous waste transportation, storage, treatment and disposal business until it sold the vast majority of the business on April 6, 2020. Stericycle operated 13 RCRA-permitted hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities and 44 waste transfer facilities. On April 6, 2020, Stericycle completed the sale of its Stericycle Environmental Solutions hazardous waste business to Harsco Corp., Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, and, since that date, has largely ceased managing hazardous waste in the United States. However, the EPA says Stericycle remains accountable for its systemic RCRA violations prior to that sale.