Largest Alternative Treatment Plant in Europe now open with clinical waste processing capacity

New environmentally friendly facility adds clinical waste processing capacity to support the NHS and other healthcare providers through the COVID-19 crisis while protecting people, promoting health and safeguarding the environment.

Stericycle UK, a leading provider of clinical waste and secure information destruction services, today announced it has opened an alternative treatment plant in Telford, Shropshire, to process clinical waste generated in the United Kingdom, including testing materials, sharps, hospital waste, and, in some cases, personal protective equipment (PPE) created by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Stericycle UK processes clinical waste collected from NHS trusts and other hospitals, pharmacies, care homes, dental practices and laboratories across the U.K.  The new Telford plant, staffed by over 60 people, will increase the speed, efficiency and sustainability of this processing by using the latest technologies to steam-treat clinical waste, which is then used as a fuel for power generation and other industrial processes.  The plant is expected to reduce the amount of treated clinical waste sent to landfill for disposal by up to an estimated 48 tonnes per day.  

“The COVID-19 pandemic and immunisation drive are generating clinical waste across the U.K. health system,” said Stericycle UK commercial director, James Cardwell-Moore.  “As a company focused on safeguarding the world around us, we continue to invest in modernising our facilities with the latest innovative technologies to support the NHS and other healthcare customers across the U.K.  Stericycle is proud to play an essential role in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 by removing potentially infectious clinical waste safely and disposing of it in an environmentally responsible and sustainable way.”       

Simon Clarke, managing director, Birmingham Hospitals Alliance (BHA) Shared Procurement Services, said: “The Trust has a strong partnership with Stericycle, and they have supported us through the COVID pandemic. We welcome the investment made in their new facility at Telford, which will create additional network capacity to benefit NHS customers.”

Stericycle operates 19 clinical waste management sites across the U.K. These plants use the energy from incinerated waste to heat and provide hot water to hospitals on the same sites, turn waste into a solid fuel for burning to generate electricity, or transfer waste to the most appropriate processing plant.  Energy from incinerated waste is also used to recycle sharps containers.