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DE 
On 19.04.2023, 6 employees of Mull und Partner Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH (M&P) from Hanover visited the laboratory of GBA Gesellschaft für Bioanalytik mbH (GBA) at the Hildesheim site. The colleagues got a comprehensive insight into the world of the laboratory.
GBA has several locations both in Germany and abroad and is a laboratory service provider for various sectors such as pharmaceuticals, food or agrochemicals. The focus on this day was on the environmental analyses of solid samples.
Almost every day, M&P colleagues take samples of soil or building rubble material from various construction sites, mainly in the Hanover area but also beyond, in accordance with the specified guidelines of LAGA PN98 and report them to the GBA laboratory for collection.
The laboratory also receives samples of various kinds in a wide variety of sample containers from other offices or even private individuals. This requires good logistics, starting with the registration of each individual sample container to the dispatch of certain samples to other locations - not every location has the same analytical techniques - to the evaluation and dispatch of the results to the customers. The samples are registered via the so-called LIMS (Laboratory Information and Management System), a software-supported EDP system. Each sample is given a barcode that can be used to retrieve the corresponding data at any time in the laboratory process.
The turnaround times of the samples (from receipt of the sample to the final test report) vary greatly and depend on the materials and (pollutants) to be tested. Some results are available after 2 days, some only after 3 weeks due to the procedure, such as the gas formation rate.
Chemical analyses and their results in the form of test reports are an essential part of M&P's work. The data obtained from the laboratory are analysed and evaluated by us, the examined materials are classified according to soil protection or waste legislation and passed on to the end customer (usually the building owner or construction company) in the form of reports.
The laboratory results are an essential aspect on construction sites when deciding whether soils or waste batches can be reused or recycled or whether they have to be disposed of, e.g. in a landfill, due to chemical contamination. In this respect, good interaction between M&P as an engineering office and GBA as an analytical laboratory is a decisive factor for a functioning circular economy.
M&P thanks the colleagues of the GBA Hildesheim for the profound insights into the processes of the laboratory and looks forward to a continued good cooperation.