Stericyle Romania opens biggest medical waste processing facility in Europe

The Stericycle Romania company announced the start of operation of the biggest medical waste sterilization facility in that country in the town of Jilava outside the capital Bucharest. The Challenger sterilization facility has a processing capacity of two tons an hour making it Stericycle Europe’s largest medical waste management facility on the continent.

Stericycle Romania said it had made a total investment of EUR 1 million to build the facility in Ilfov county where it’s national headquarters are located.

The Challenger facility uses a Green Heat Disinfection Unit (HDU), a technology that has been successfully used for over 20 years in the United States, England and Ireland, a statement from the Romanian branch of the Stericycle company said adding that international environmental organizations see this technology as one of the most environmentally friendly solutions in the medical and hazardous waste management industry.

The hazardous and medical waste processing is completely automated at the Challenger facility which can process metal medical tools along with other hazardous medical waste generated by the medical, pharmaceutical, veterinary, chemical and other industries.

Romanian media reported that Stericycle operates across the country managing and safely disposing of not only medical waste but also other types of hazardous and non-hazardous waste using organic incineration and sterilization technology.

Stericycle Romania is planning to invest another EUR 500,000 in its facilities by the end of 2017. The company reported a turnover of EUR 10.4 million in 2016 and a turnover of EUR 5.5 million in the first half of 2017. Stericycle performance reports said that the company processed 10,700 tons of both hazardous and non-hazardous waste in 2016 in facilities across Romania.

Romanian media also reported that according to official figures from the European Union’s Eurostat agency, the country’s industries and households generate some 267 million tons of different types of waste a year. That data shows that hazardous waste accounts for less than 0.25% of the total amount of waste in the country.