LEGAL BARRIERS AND POLICY GAPS IN INDUSTRIAL SYMBIOSIS: A PATHWAY TO REGULATORY INNOVATION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17770/etr2025vol1.8663Keywords:
circular economy, industrial symbiosis, material circularity rate, resource productivityAbstract
The latest report on the Circularity gap reveals that the circularity ratio in 2022 has dropped by 21%. Simultaneously, in just the past six years alone, global consumption reached over half a trillion tonnes of materials - nearly as much as the entirety of the 20th century. This paper explores the key legal and policy facilitators and barriers that prevent businesses from fully engaging in Industrial Symbiosis, focusing on EU waste legislation and national regulatory constraints, applying methodologies such as literature review and analysis of secondary data. This research aims to analyse policy planning documents and identify key strategies for implementing Industrial Symbiosis. The paper highlights practical solutions to support the expansion of Industrial Symbiosis by addressing the legal and policy roadblocks. Overcoming these barriers will help businesses operate more sustainably, foster cross-sector collaboration, and accelerate the shift toward a circular and resource-efficient economy. In addition, the implementation of Industrial Symbiosis will also lead to the country’s ability to i) account for credible and verifiable data for waste prevention, ii) increase resource productivity rate (which is currently a significant issue for countries such as Latvia), iii) increase material circularity rate. The main findings and conclusions will outline the strategies required at the policy and regulatory levels to foster industrial symbiosis. The paper provides practical recommendations to policy planners on how to apply Industrial Symbiosis for an efficient country’s economy’s transition to a circular economy.
References
Circle Economy Foundation, "Circularity Gap Report 2023," 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023#download. [Accessed: Feb. 11, 2025].
European Union, "Decision (EU) 2022/591 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 April 2022 on a General Union Environment Action Programme to 2030," 2022. [Online]. Available: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32022D0591. [Accessed: Feb. 11, 2025].
R. Richardson et al., "Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries," Sci. Adv., vol. 9, 2023, Art. no. ead2458. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh2458.
U. Fric, Z. Levnajić, D. Modic, and B. Rončević, "Industrial symbiosis networks supporting circularity: Understanding complexity, cyclicality, and resilience," Environ. Technol. Innov., vol. 37, 2025, Art. no. 104026. DOI: 10.1016/j.eti.2025.104026.
M. Esposito, T. Tse, and K. Soufani, "Introducing a circular economy: new thinking with new managerial and policy implications," Calif. Manag. Rev., vol. 60, no. 3, pp. 5–19, 2018.
B. Baldassarre et al., "The evolution of the Strategic role of Designers for Sustainable Development," in Proc. Acad. Design Innov. Manage. Conf., 2019, pp. 1–15.
T. Domenech et al., "Mapping industrial symbiosis development in Europe: Typologies of networks, characteristics, performance, and contribution to the circular economy," Resour. Conserv. Recycle, vol. 141, pp. 76–98, 2019.
L. Fraccascia and D. M. Yazan, "The role of online information-sharing platforms on the performance of industrial symbiosis networks," Resour. Conserv. Recycle, vol. 136, pp. 473–485, 2018.
X. Ren and J. Wang, "Symbiotic evolution mechanism of urban air mobility industrial innovation ecosystem: Evidence from low altitude air mobility in Shenzhen," J. Air Transp. Manage., vol. 124, 2025, Art. no. 102750. DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102750.
W. K. Biswas and J. Michele, "Industrial Ecology," in Engineering for Sustainable Development: Theory and Practice. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119721079.ch6. [Accessed: Feb. 21, 2025].
J. Patricio et al., "Method for identifying industrial symbiosis opportunities," Resour. Conserv. Recycle, vol. 185, 2022, Art. no. 106437. DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106437.
K. Ulusoy et al., "Industrial Symbiosis Practices: A Case Study of Türkiye and Denmark," Environ. Res. Technol., 2024. DOI: 10.35208/ert.1271679.[13] M. Granovetter, "Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness," Am. J. Sociol., vol. 91, pp. 481–510, 1985.
P. Desrochers and S. Leppälä, "Industrial symbiosis: Old wine in recycled bottles? Some perspectives from the history of economic and geographical thought," Int. Reg. Sci. Rev., vol. 33, pp. 338–361, 2010.
European Union, "The European Green Deal," 2019. [Online]. Available: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52019DC0640. [Accessed: Jan. 24, 2025].
European Union, "A new Circular Economy Action Plan For a cleaner and more competitive Europe," 2020. [Online]. Available: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:9903b325-6388-11ea-b735-01aa75ed71a1.0017.02/DOC_1&format=PDF. [Accessed: Jan. 24, 2025].
European Union, "Directive 2008/98/EC on waste and repealing specific Directives," 2024. [Online]. Available: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32008L0098. [Accessed: Jan. 24, 2025].
European Union, "A New Industrial Strategy for Europe," 2020. [Online]. Available: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:52020DC0102. [Accessed: Jan. 24, 2025].
Science Europe, "EU Framework Programmes - Horizon Europe," 2024. [Online]. Available: https://scienceeurope.org/our-priorities/eu-framework-programmes/. [Accessed: Jan. 24, 2025].
OECD, "Material Resources, Productivity and the Environment," OECD Green Growth Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, 2015. [Online]. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264190504-en. [Accessed: Feb. 16, 2025].
SCALER, "Report on EU-wide industrial symbiosis regulatory measures," 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.scalerproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/D4.4_SCALER_Policies-Report_v1.0.pdf. [Accessed: Feb. 7, 2025].
J. S. C. Low et al., "A Collaboration Platform for Enabling Industrial Symbiosis: Application of the Database Engine for Waste-to-Resource Matching," in 25th CIRP Life Cycle Eng. Conf., vol. 69, pp. 849–854, 2018. DOI: 10.1016/j.procir.2017.11.075.
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, "Industrial Symbiosis – Drivers, Barriers, Benefits and Costs," Report prepared by Europe Economics, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6790f755cf977e4bf9a2f15c/industrial-symbiosis-research.pdf. [Accessed: Feb. 7, 2025].
G. Halkos and P.-S. C. Aslanidis, "Reviewing the integrated institutional waste-related framework for circular economy in the European Union," Waste Manage. Bull., vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 28-35, 2024. DOI: 10.1016/j.wmb.2024.06.002.
I. Artola et al., "Cooperation fostering industrial symbiosis – Market potential, good practice and policy actions – Final report," Publ. Office, 2018. DOI: 10.2873/346873.
N. Cudecka-Purina et al., "A Comprehensive Review of Construction and Demolition Waste Management Practices and Assessment of This Waste Flow for Future Valorization via Energy Recovery and Industrial Symbiosis," Energies, vol. 17, p. 5506, 2024. DOI: 10.3390/en17215506.
M. Favot, L. Grassetti, A. Massarutto, and R. Veit, "Regulation and competition in the extended producer responsibility models: Results in the WEEE sector in Europe," Waste Manage., vol. 145, pp. 60-71, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2022.04.027.
P. Mallick, K. Salling, D. Pigosso, and T. McAloone, "Designing and operationalizing extended producer responsibility under the EU Green Deal," Environ. Challenges, vol. 16, 2024, Art. no. 100977. DOI: 10.1016/j.envc.2024.100977.
Ellen MacArthur Foundation, "Towards the circular economy Vol. 2: Opportunities for the consumer goods sector," 2013. [Online]. Available: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/towards-the-circular-economy-vol-2-opportunities-for-the-consumer-goods. [Accessed: Feb. 7, 2025].
V. Petrova, "Industrial symbiosis in the raw material sector as an overarching solution in the circular economy," vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 61–65, 2022. DOI: 10.58903/c16182120.
Eurostat, "Material flow accounts statistics - material footprints," 2023. [Online]. Available: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Material_flow_accounts_statistics_-_material_footprints#Raw_material_consumption_by_final_use_of_products. [Accessed: Feb. 16, 2025].
European Parliament, "€29 billion trade deficit in raw materials in 2023," 2024. [Online]. Available: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20240514-1. [Accessed: Feb. 6, 2025].
European Environment Agency, "Employment in the circular economy," 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/circularity/thematic-metrics/business/employment-in-the-circular-economy. [Accessed: Feb. 6, 2025].
European Parliament, "Circular economy: Definition, importance and benefits," 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20151201STO05603/circular-economy-definition-importance-and-benefits. [Accessed: Jan. 30, 2025].
OECD, "Material Resources, Productivity and the Environment," OECD Green Growth Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, 2015. DOI: 10.1787/9789264190504-en.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Natalija Cudecka-Purina
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
