Sterecycle process

Taken from the Sterecylce website on 12 January 2011

Sterecycle is a waste management business focused on recycling and green energy. We have our own patented technologies that are capable of recycling and recovering up to 80% of the typical household waste stream.

Since June 2008 Sterecycle been operating a full scale plant in Yorkshire that processes 100,000 tonnes per annum of waste. This is the World's 1st full scale commercial autoclave plant to treat residual household waste. The plant is processing "black-bag" waste from 3 local authorities under a contract for up to 10 years: Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council and Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council. Whilst autoclaving has been used for a number of years for sterilising small batches of medical waste, Sterecycle has pioneered its use at industrial scale and for recycling municipal solid waste. In addition, the facility uses Sterecycle’s own unique autoclaving system which is highly energy efficient and integrated with a green energy plant is self-sustaining with a beneficial carbon footprint. Sterecycle's technology is protected by a series of granted patents and patent applications.

Our business model is to build, own and operate waste recycling plants, processing residual waste as a substitute for landfill. Sterecycle is a well funded business, backed by blue chip investors including Goldman Sachs, Fidelity International and Impax Asset Management. Sterecycle currently has 55 full time employees and with further recycling plants will employ over 300 staff in 2013. We plan to have at least 6 plants operational by 2013 including in Yorkshire, Wales, London and Glasgow.


The Sterecycle process is 2 stage – sterilisation at temperature and pressure followed by mechanical separation.

The heart of the sterecycle® system is a series of interconnected sterecycle® autoclaves. These are pressure vessels similar to those used in hospitals to sterilise surgical instruments but are much larger and have unique patented characteristics. Unsorted household bagged waste is loaded directly into the vessels and heat is applied at around 130 degrees C. A combination of the steam and pressure raised internally and the rotation of the vessels results in:
(i) the organic fraction of the waste being broken down into a fibrous lignocellulosic biomass;
(ii) the non-organics being sterilised and steam cleaned;
(iii) the organics can now be easily separated from the non-organics; and
(iv) reduction in volume of the input waste material by 60/70 %