DRUG MANUFACTURER AVOIDS CATASTROPHIC CLOSURE

Drug Manufacturer

About Drug Manufacturer

This national drug company is a well establish manufacturer of name brand and generic drugs used in the United States. They began to expand their operations into California to meet the growing demands of the customers they were supplying.

Their Problem

 

A national drug company opened a plant in California to manufacturer their product. Unfortunately, as is the case with most out of state companies moving into California, they implemented their own states hazardous waste rules and regulations. Not an uncommon practice, however, California is one of the most, if not the most, regulated state in the country when it comes to hazardous and non-hazardous waste disposal. Since their current vendor was on a “business as usual approach” to the company’s operation, IDR was asked to take a look at their current operations and determine if they were complaint with DTSC guidelines.

As is the case with all of our new and existing clients, we provided a thorough walkthrough to identify the waste that was being generated and what procedures are in place to handle that waste. It became very apparent that many of the practices and procedures the client had in place were in violation of DTSC guidelines for the handling and storing of hazardous waste. If a DTSC inspection had occurred, we surmised that the plant could well be shut down for the violations that were found. We were able to identify the following:

 

  • Personnel who were signing hazardous waste manifests were either poorly trained or had no certification
  • Little or no training was provided for Lead and Supervisors on all shifts for basic emergency spills and 24 hour emergency response
  • Hazardous waste was being stored incorrectly
  • They needed specific water treatment programs in place
  • Workflow practices needed to be improved for DTSC annual reports

 

What IDR Did

 

Almost immediately, we implemented the following changes to address the specific issues that were found:

 

  • Trained personnel on the correct procedures for completing hazardous waste manifests and obtained certification training for specific personnel where needed
  • Trained Lead and Supervisors on all shifts on basic emergency spill procedures. Provided a 24hr First Responder Training Course and placed Spill Kits in all necessary locations through their warehouse
  • Implemented new storage tanks that held more waste, cost less money and allowed for better utilization of the space in the warehouse.
  • Implemented a CUPA and Waste Water Treatment program
  • Implemented proper workflow practices for the DTSC annual report
Richard Espinosa
 “Shutting their plant down was a real possibility for this client. The subsequent loss of production and income would have had devastating effects.”

Richard Espinosa.   Vice President – IDR Environmental Services

The Outcome

 

The lack of knowledge of California’s strict rules and regulations for hazardous waste disposal, could have affected this drug manufacturer’s operations substantially, by implementing all of our recommendations, the client was able to obtain substantial cost savings and avoid a potential catastrophic shut down of their facilities.

 

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