Industrial symbiosis marketplace concept for waste valorization pathways

Abstract

Acceleration of raw materials’ depletion and waste accumulation create a need for stakeholders to shift from linear to circular business models by adopting novel strategies. Circular economy (CE) and industrial symbiosis (IS) offer a direction towards sustainable, resource efficient systems and eco-friendly waste management approaches. IS encompasses all types of interfirm cooperation in order to achieve a green, waste-free supply chain and at the same time to attain profits. However, among other barriers hampering widespread adoption of IS is lack of information exchange. Digital tools have emerged as facilitators of IS, since they enable real-time data sharing, identification and evaluation of symbiotic opportunities, while continuous progress of those tools is necessary for the digital transformation of IS. Important elements for the functionality and success of such tools are the criteria determining the matching of potential stakeholders and the support of the decision-making process. In the ongoing research that is presented, these matching criteria and benchmarks for waste valorization pathways are investigated and a matchmaking framework is proposed. The objective of the framework is to identify the most suitable collaborators to be deployed later to an automated matchmaking process, revealing latent possibilities (e.g. by suggesting indirect matches) and advantages of symbiotic actions from a holistic perspective. This tailor-made assessment is aspired to evaluate stakeholders’ compatibility based on more than a mere waste streams’ valorization match. Stakeholders’ specific requirements and motivations are incorporated in the potential partnership evaluation, thereby a multicriterion approach is proposed considering the potential cooperators’ relevance in terms of aspects like strategic goals, the level of IS embracement or synergy’s environmental impact.

Promoting Sustainable Fruit and Vegetable Biowaste Management and Industrial Symbiosis through an Innovative Web Platform

“…Akrivou et al [6] presented a conceptual framework for industrial symbiosis matchmaking, specifically designed for a waste valorization marketplace. This framework aimed to provide users with a comprehensive evaluation that incorporates both quantitative and qualitative information, thereby contributing to the decision-making process.…”

“…This exchange entails one company utilizing another company's residual flow as an input, resulting in mutual benefits and reduced environmental impact. Currently, industrial symbiosis encompasses various forms of intercompany cooperation, including resource exchange or sharing, underutilized resource utilization, utility sharing, infrastructure collaboration, and service cooperation [6,7].…”

“…Overall, while industrial symbiosis offers numerous benefits, several barriers can hinder its widespread adoption, depending on the specific context and stakeholders involved. Such barriers can be the lack of awareness and knowledge, regulatory and legal constraints, financial constraints, infrastructure limitations, and a lack of trust and data exchange between stakeholders [5][6][7]. Several tools have been created in recent years to overcome some of these obstacles.…”

“…Several recent studies [6,7,[17][18][19] have explored the development of web platforms that address the utilization of various waste types as valuable resources; however, none of these platforms specifically emphasize the matchmaking of synergies for biowaste utilization. Additionally, the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform (SAI Platform) [20] was established in 2002.…”

Promoting Sustainable Agricultural Waste Management and Industrial Symbiosis through an Innovative Web Platform

“…In this context, the creation of a platform that deals with the utilization of agro-waste is the subject of many recent studies [14,15] and some platforms including news in agricultural waste and sustainable agriculture have been formed (e.g., SAI, Agrovalor, AgroCycle project) [16][17][18][19]. Moreover, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation, provides free and unrestricted access to 22 databases (e.g.…”