Environment: ENEA developed innovative model of industrial symbiosis

A pilot model for turning manufacturing waste into resources to be reused in other manufacturing processes in the Marches region, with over 30 companies brought together, about 200 shared resources and almost 90 potential synergies including supply and demand. These are some of the results of the MARLIC[1] project, funded with 11.4 million euro by the Marches Region, comprising ENEA and 20 universities, research institutions and local companies, including the Cnr, the Marche Cluster Foundation and HP Composites (coordinator).

As part of the project, the ENEA Laboratory for the Valorisation of Resources in Production and Territorial Systems has developed a pilot model of industrial symbiosis to investigate potential synergies among local companies and enhance industrial waste and surplus resources of various kinds (material waste, energy waste, services, skills, capabilities and logistics). In this context, ENEA coordinated a roundtable with 31 companies from various manufacturing sectors (agri-food, textiles, footwear, plastics manufacturing, chemicals, recovery and preparation for waste recycling, construction) which shared 199 resources and identified 86 potential synergies including supply and demand (leather, cardboard and plastic/rubber, etc.).

ENEA also identified technical and technological skills and roles on the territory for the promotion of a new organizational model, in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of the Marches, the University of Camerino and Confindustria Macerata.

The following stages will be carried out by ENEA in close collaboration with the companies which took part in the work in order to analyze symbiotic scenarios of the three most significant macro-flows of resources, both from an environmental and an economic point of view, which resulted from the roundtable.