Case studies: Environmental & Water

Autoscribe’s LIMS Helps USA Business Meet Tough Hazardous Waste Standards

Solution: LIMS

Large Environmental Services Company

Benzoil 1600

Since 2013 Autoscribe’s LIMS has been used by this company’s laboratories across the USA to ensure re-refined engine oil meets the high specifications required for re-use.

When expanding its business to provide hazardous waste monitoring for external clients this business turned to Autoscribe Informatics to provide a LIMS for its contract environmental laboratory in Maryland, USA. Autoscribe’s Xybion LIMS (formerly Matrix Gemini LIMS) solution has been in operation in the contract environmental laboratory since 2018, providing hazardous waste determinations for businesses from across North America. This helps clients meet the USEnvironmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) stringent hazardous waste regulations (40 CFR 261) and handle hazardous waste appropriately. The environmental laboratory continues to expand and is now considering further enhancements and extensions to their LIMS.

CHALLENGES

  • New, fast growing, contract environmental laboratory

SOLUTION

matrix-lims

BENEFITS

  • Certificates of Analysis ensure clients can prove they meet regulatory requirements
  • Easy comparison of data provides an early warning of unusual results
  • Sample registration, approval and management functions may be accessed off-site

Challenges

The company set up a new contract environmental laboratory in 2018 to service clients across North America. The Laboratory’s purpose is to perform ‘hazardous waste characterization’. It is a requirement of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that hazardous waste be tested to understand its constituents to ensure protection of the environment. Any industry that handles such waste must test it and make a hazardous waste determination. EPA’s regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations (40 CFR) define four hazardous waste characteristic properties: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity (see 40 CFR 261.21-261.24). Its environmental laboratory tests these characteristics on behalf of clients to ensure the waste is within regulatory limits for appropriate re-use or disposal, as intended.