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Solid Waste Report 12/13/02
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Stericycle Closes Two More Burners Medical waste giant Stericycle shut down two of its incinerators in Arizona and Missouri last month, leading the industry yet another step away from incineration as a method of waste treatment. Stericycle stopped burning waste at its Ari-zona facility, located on the Gila River Indian Community reservation, on Nov. 17. It was the last commercial incinerator in Arizona. In St. Louis, the company decided to shut down its incinerator roughly a week after the city's board of aldermen passed a bill limiting medical waste incineration in the city and requiring better monitoring of incinera-tor smokestacks. At both sites, the company will continue or expand its autoclave services, a steam sterilization process preferred by environmentalists and com-munities over incinerators, which emit dioxins and other toxins into the air. Customers, Law Are Drivers A Stericycle spokesman said the conversion from incineration to autoclave at the two sites was possible because its customers agreed to alternative treatment of their waste. "You're looking at 15 to 20 percent of the to-tal waste stream that is either mandated by custom-ers or by law to be incinerated," Tony Tomasello, executive vice president of Stericycle, told SWR. "While we can't do much about the laws, we can and have been working on getting customers to move away from incineration. This is a result of a concerted action through programs we have had for years." Activists Like News The two "tremendous victories" by community groups and activist organizations forced Steri-cycle's hand, Bradley Angel, executive director of California-based Greenaction, told SWR.. The group protested Stericycle's continued use of incin-eration in May outside of the company's share-holder meeting in Chicago (SWR, May 17, p. 153). Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) spokes-woman Stacy Malkan told SWR she was "pleased that [Stericycle] seems to be recognizing that incin-eration is not the way to go, but it took years of opposition from communities to get to this point." The recent closures bring the number of facili-ties operated by Stericycle down to 10, according to HCWH. That number is small on the national scale; however, Stericycle's recently closed facilities were two of the largest incinerators operating in the United States, Malkan said. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) counts more than 700 medical waste incinerators remaining across the nation. Only a few years ago, the count was more than 6,000. Contacts: Tony Tomasello, Stericycle, (847) 607-2053; Stacy Malkan, HCWH, (202) 234-0091; Bradley Angel, Greenaction, (415) 248-5010. |