DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

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 more than 1,000,000 customers throughout the United States, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Republic of Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

We lease office space for our corporate offices in Lake Forest, Illinois. Domestically, we own or lease 114 processing facilities, which are primarily autoclaves for medical waste and shredders for secure information destruction. All of our processing facilities also serve as collection sites. We own or lease 218 additional transfer sites, 21 additional sales/administrative sites, and 83 other service facilities. Internationally, we own or lease 139 processing facilities, the majority of which use autoclave waste processing technology. We also own or lease 140 additional transfer sites, 62 additional sales/administrative sites, 54 other service facilities, and 3 landfills.

We are a business-to-business services provider with a focus on regulated and compliance solutions for healthcare, retail, and commercial businesses. This includes the collection and processing of regulated and specialized waste for disposal and the collection of personal and confidential information for secure destruction, plus a variety of training, consulting, recall/return, communication, and compliance services.

Our solutions for regulated or specialty waste streams include: medical waste disposal, pharmaceutical waste disposal, hazardous waste management, sustainability solutions for expired or unused inventory, and secure information destruction of documents or e-media. Our compliance solutions include: training and consulting through our Steri-Safe^® and Clinical Services programs as well as inbound/outbound communications, data reporting, and other regulatory compliance services. Our regulated recall and returns management solutions consist of communication, logistics, and data management services to support the recall, withdrawal, or return of expired or recalled products.

We have 14,170 employees in the United States, of which 419 are covered by collective bargaining agreements. Internationally, we have 11,302 employees, of which approximately 2,703 are covered by collective bargaining agreements, primarily in Latin America.