A resounding 203 potential synergies were identified between participating KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) companies at the industrial symbiosis business opportunity workshop that was hosted by the National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA) on Tuesday, 7 November 2017 in Durban. The day raised the awareness among KZN industry of how waste can be turned into a reusable resource by entering into mutually beneficial collaborative agreements.

By employing an innovate reuse and recycling solution, the NCPC-SA through the KwaZulu-Natal Industrial Symbiosis Programme (KISP) matched 33 companies for the sake of exchanging unused or residual resources of one company for use by another, thereby diverting waste from landfills and reducing costs to companies.

Through the KISP, the NCPC-SA aims to find sustainable solutions for waste materials and divert waste from landfills, while at the same time creating real financial benefits for participating companies in the programme. In her address to the attending industry, Thembelihle Ndlovu, R&D Deputy Director for the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA), affirmed government’s supports for programmes such as the KISP.

Ndlovu called on industry to think of unwanted products and waste material in new ways. “Companies need to be innovative to unlock opportunities that we are talking about today,” she reiterated.

Typically waste is defined as residual material that is unwanted or unusable by the user. The collaborative efforts of the KZN companies resulted in 131 exchangeable unused or residual resources (materials, water and energy, waste, assets and underutilised equipment and facilities etc.) that were identified at the workshop.

This is material that would ordinarily be disposed of, but through the KISP workshop, it has a potential of being reused or recycled by someone else. “What we aim to achieve is that nothing must go to landfills,” says Pearl Thusi, NCPC-SA Project Leader of the NCPC-SA industrial symbiosis programme in KZN.

The NCPC-SA as the national resource efficiency programme of the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), is the custodian of the KISP. Similar programmes operate in Gauteng and the Western Cape cooperated by GreenCape. Henry Nuwarinda, Project Manager for ISP at the NCPC-SA nationally, posed this question to the company representatives of, “How can we as responsible industry contribute towards building a sustainable future?” He highlighted that industrial symbiosis is one way for industry to do so.

Industrial symbiosis is offered as a free facilitation service by the National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA). Visit the NCPC-SA website www.ncpc.co.za for information on how your company can utilise this service in your region.