In a significant enforcement action reinforcing the duty of companies to handle hazardous wastes responsibly, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has reached a settlement with Stericycle, Inc. The waste management company has been slapped with a $9.5 million civil penalty for a series of violations of federal hazardous waste management laws, the Justice Department announced. The settlement comes in the wake of allegations that from 2014 through 2020, Stericycle mismanaged hazardous waste on a nationwide scale, failing to adhere to proper tracking, storage, and transportation regulations as specified under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
"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," Matthew Podolsky, who serves as Attorney for the United States in this case, told the Justice Department. This large penalty is intended to seriously deter similar violations in the future. Acting Assistant Administrator Cecil Rodrigues of the EPA added, "Stericycle repeatedly failed to ensure proper transport, management, and storage of hazardous waste – a job that they were paid to do and entrusted to perform on behalf of customers nationwide."
The lawsuit, which was filed and settled simultaneously, chronicled a host of infractions by Stericycle, such as losing track of hazardous waste shipments, diverting waste to unauthorized facilities, and failing to rectify reported discrepancies between what was shipped and what was received. Stericycle's inadequate practices resulted in the EPA's stern enforcement response. The company also neglected to provide generators with proper documentation to confirm the disposal of hazardous materials, a procedural cornerstone designed to maintain environmental safety and accountability.
Despite being fully aware of the severe shortcomings, Stericycle did not sufficiently alter their operations to comply with regulations. "The most basic thing that we do for our clients is moving the waste from point a to point b and we can't do it," a Stericycle director was quoted to have said in 2019 in a statement obtained by the Justice Department. The settlement now holds Stericycle accountable for its past actions, requiring admissions of responsibility and acknowledgments of the company's failures during the period in question.
