DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2013

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

We were incorporated in 1989 and presently serve a diverse customer base of over 566,000 customers throughout the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

We lease office space for our corporate offices in Lake Forest, Illinois. Domestically, we own or lease 61 processing facilities, the majority of which use autoclave waste processing technology. All of our processing facilities also serve as collection sites. We own or lease 97 additional transfer sites, 10 additional sales/administrative sites, and 52 other service facilities. Internationally, we own or lease 105 processing facilities, the majority of which use autoclave waste processing technology. We also own or lease 58 additional transfer sites, 34 additional sales/administrative sites, 18 other service facilities, and we lease two landfills.

We are in the business of providing regulated and compliance solutions to healthcare and commercial businesses. This includes the collection and processing of specialized waste for disposal, and a variety of training, consulting, recall/return, communication, and compliance services.

The regulated solutions we provide include: medical waste disposal, our Steri-Safe^® medical waste and compliance program, our Clinical Services program, our Sharps Management Service featuring Bio Systems^® reusable sharps containers, pharmaceutical waste disposal, hazardous waste disposal, and medical safety products. Our compliance solutions include: training, consulting, inbound/outbound communications, data reporting, and other regulatory compliance services. In addition to our regulated and compliance solutions, we offer regulated recall and returns management solutions which encompass a number of services for a variety of businesses, but consist primarily of managing the recall, withdrawal, or return of expired or recalled products and pharmaceuticals.

We have 8,376 employees in the United States, of which 424 are covered by collective bargaining agreements. Internationally, we have 6,548 employees, of which approximately 1,940 are covered by collective bargaining agreements, primarily in Latin America.

The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. The preparation of financial statements in conformity with these accounting principles requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reporting period.

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements included herein contain all adjustments necessary to present fairly our financial position as of December 31, 2013 and 2012 and the results of our operations, our cash flows, and our statement of changes in equity for the three years ended December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011. Such adjustments are of a normal recurring nature. We have evaluated subsequent events through the date of filing this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Certain amounts in previously issued financial statements have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation. The following reclassifications were made to our 2012 balance sheet and to our 2012 and 2011 statements of cash flows:

• related to product reimbursement liabilities

▪ in our balance sheet as of December 31, 2012, $12.7 million was reclassified from accrued liabilities to other current liabilities;

▪ in our statement of cash flows for 2012, $1.2 million was reclassified within operating activities from accrued liabilities to other assets and liabilities;

▪ in our statement of cash flows for 2011, $18.0 million was reclassified within operating activities from accrued liabilities to other assets and liabilities.

• other reclassifications

▪ in our balance sheet as of December 31, 2012, $6.7 million was reclassified from accrued liabilities to accounts payable;

▪ in our statement of cash flows for 2012, $0.5 million was reclassified within operating activities from accrued liabilities to accounts payable; $5.3 million was reclassified from investing activities to financing activities related to purchases of additional noncontrolling interests;

▪ in our statement of cash flows for 2011, $3.4 million was reclassified within operating activities from accrued liabilities to accounts payable; $10.5 million was reclassified from investing activities to financing activities related to purchases of additional noncontrolling interests.

The preparation of the consolidated financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States requires management to make certain estimates and assumptions that affect the amount of reported assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and revenues and expenses during the periods reported. Actual results may differ from those estimate