New industrial symbiosis pilot for manufacturing in West Yorkshire

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Yorkshire Circular Lab are happy to announce their collaboration on a project that explores the potential for waste-to-resource innovation in the form of material industrial symbiosis between key manufacturing industries across West Yorkshire.

Manufacturing constitutes one of the largest industries in the region with environmental concerns related to the industry’s problematic waste output. Industrial symbiosis presents an opportunity to bring new purpose and value to this waste rather than disposing it in landfill or eliminating it through incineration.

Image credit: iStock.com/Man As Thep.

The project aims to gain a better understanding of problematic and/or high volume sources of waste generated in the region, and link them to other industries that could directly reuse or repurpose these waste materials for use in their own production processes.

Fully evidenced benefits of successfully implementing industrial symbioses, for businesses and the wider region, include:

• A reduction in operational costs and supply chain risks in terms of waste management and resource security.
• The development of new business opportunities and competitive advantage.
• Market incentives such as positive marketing and access to the growing market for reused materials and products.
• A significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts associated with resource extraction.
• The creation of new jobs and development of new skills.

Once potential symbioses have been identified and mapped by this project, the potential benefits for West Yorkshire will be further examined and assessed, before being used to develop the business case for adopting symbiosis as a business practice.

This project will contribute to West Yorkshire’s ambition to become net zero by 2038 as indicated by the Climate and Environment Plan (2021), as well as supporting the UK Government’s goal of resource and energy efficiency outlined by the Net Zero Strategy (October 2021) and Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy (March 2021).

Ultimately, this project will unveil the potential of material industrial symbiosis aiding the transition away from a linear take-make-dispose mode of production towards a prosperous and sustainable circular economy.

The research will be undertaken by Isaac Lassey, a postgraduate research student at the University of Leeds.

Isaac Lassey