An approach to favor industrial symbiosis: the case of waste electrical and electronic equipment

The Potential of Industrial Symbiosis: Case Analysis and Main Drivers and Barriers to Its Implementation

“…Thus, in addition to meetings with local businesses that help foster possible relationships, as achieved in Emilia-Romagna, Italy [53], the Catania and Siracusa districts in Italy [66], and Colombia [34], the use of digital programs and platforms can also facilitate this interaction by building a common base with potential participants and waste and by optimising possible relationships. Examples of these are the development of a digital web platform for the electrical and electronic equipment sector [38], the Looplocal tool, which is useful in countries with geographically dispersed industries [72], the eSymbiosis multilingual service, implemented as an accessible web service [80], the SymbioSyS tool [87], and the ESOTA®platform, which is based on relationship mimicking [112].…”

“…Of the three dimensions of sustainability, the environmental aspect was the most frequently discussed, and the most commonly applied method was the use of environmental indicators [10,13,39,88,105]. The reduction of carbon dioxide emissions was the most frequently addressed in the various analyses [35,36,38,63,70,73,98], followed by quantification of savings in the consumption of resources such as energy, water, raw materials and fossil fuels [9,39,63,88,95], and quantification of the reduction of waste sent to landfills [9,34,39] resulting from the potential application of industrial symbiosis. Life cycle assessment [9,38,63,84,98] was the method most commonly used to assess the environmental impact.…”

“…The reduction of carbon dioxide emissions was the most frequently addressed in the various analyses [35,36,38,63,70,73,98], followed by quantification of savings in the consumption of resources such as energy, water, raw materials and fossil fuels [9,39,63,88,95], and quantification of the reduction of waste sent to landfills [9,34,39] resulting from the potential application of industrial symbiosis. Life cycle assessment [9,38,63,84,98] was the method most commonly used to assess the environmental impact. The economic aspect, which was the second most frequently assessed, was measured using the life cycle costing method [104] and several metrics that primarily reflected reductions in raw material [39,60], fuel [13,106], energy consumption [35,36], waste disposal costs [38,39], and increased revenue [34,35,38,45,109].…”

“…Life cycle assessment [9,38,63,84,98] was the method most commonly used to assess the environmental impact. The economic aspect, which was the second most frequently assessed, was measured using the life cycle costing method [104] and several metrics that primarily reflected reductions in raw material [39,60], fuel [13,106], energy consumption [35,36], waste disposal costs [38,39], and increased revenue [34,35,38,45,109]. Job creation [45,80,120,121] was the indicator most commonly used to assess the social benefits of realising potential industrial symbiosis relationships.…”

“…These tools can enable social interaction between companies and facilitate a search for companies that can provide or receive waste. In addition, where appropriate, they can facilitate the choice of the best option based on prices, distances and potential environmental and economic benefits [38,80,87].…”