Environmental Testing Market

Regulatory bodies demand regular testing of samples and inspection of the waste disposed of in the environment. Manufacturing industries and several organizations test these samples to safeguard the environment. Environmental testing is important for many different reasons. First of all, the company wants to know the longevity of its product and how to increase it to satisfy its customers fully. As a result, companies conduct regular third-party testing to stand by the regulatory requirements. Companies demand tests specific to their samples, meet their requirements, and provide time-efficient results. Hence, several analytical laboratories have identified the need for customized testing services and offer testing services per client requirements. This helps the companies manage their testing costs and save time. It also helps the clients obtain accurate data and analytical understandings, establishing a long-term relationship between analytical laboratories and companies. Environmental testing labs give manufacturers important information regarding their products and their performance in certain conditions. Considering these factors, the need for customized testing was observed in the market.

Setting up any testing laboratory requires a lot of time and investment. Environmental testing is a highly regulated area, especially in the environmental testing lab; therefore, when setting up the lab, one must meet all the necessary government regulations defined by the local authorities. For example, to start and recognize water testing laboratories in India, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has set guidelines for the Recognition of Environmental Laboratories Under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986. Along with that, in terms of investment, several components need to be considered while setting up the lab. The major components are Infrastructural requirements, Laboratory Design and Furniture, and Laboratory equipment. While setting up the lab, a wide range of technologies needs to be considered, along with the requirement for skilled employees. All these components require an overall high investment.

Developing regions such as Africa and Asia have experienced increased industrialization in the past few years. Especially in Asia, China, Japan, and India have made considerable progress in industrial development. Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan have become major textiles and other goods exporters. To promote manufacturing growth, countries have initiated multiple campaigns, such as “Make in India” by the Indian government and “Made in China 2025” by the Chinese government. With the help of such initiatives, these countries were not only able to push their industrial growth but also create awareness about the importance of industrialization for economy among their citizens. These aggressive strategies led Asia to industrial development. In addition to the increase in industrialization in such regions, the government also tries to increase awareness among the people regarding environmental pollution and degradation. This has resulted in implementing numerous environmental protection acts, the key opportunity for the environmental testing market. Because of the increase in pollution and environmental contamination, several amendments and new environmental safety standards are expected to be set up mainly in developing economies, such as Asia Pacific, in the next five years. The progressive development of new testing methods for testing samples of contaminants such as pesticide residues, heavy metals, and organic chemicals is expected to play an important role in promoting the growth of the environmental testing market.

Testing & certification practices in several developing countries lack organization, sophistication, and technology. The lack of basic supporting infrastructure for setting up testing laboratories is a major challenge to the growth of the environmental testing market. Testing services in some developing regions also face the challenge of obtaining samples from manufacturing companies, as they are fragmented and dominated by small enterprises. Lack of funding (as well as the expansion of illegal/unplanned urban colonies) is a common cause of the inadequate provision of essential environmental services in urban India. While the infrastructure for providing environmental services is more than enough in developed nations, investing capital in developing countries like India is important to improve the infrastructure. According to an article published by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, the analysis of the gaps in India's environmental infrastructure services indicates that lack of capital is the biggest barrier to the provision of these services, followed by inadequate management systems (problem of attitude noted by Supreme Court Committee on Municipal Waste Management in India). To ensure the provision of the infrastructure and effective collection and management, international investment could be attracted (together with domestic private capital) to this sector.