Before taking this class, I had no idea what the term industrial symbiosis really meant. However, after reading this article and taking this class, I feel much more informed on the topic and can definitely see more sustainable companies adopting this environmentally friendly method of doing things. The article defines industrial symbiosis as, “a relationship between two or more firms that exchange their waste (materials – energy – water), as feedstock for the production process.” This simply means rather than a firm throwing away its unneeded waste, a company is instead donating the waste to another firm to use as something else. This strategy is overall better for the environment because ultimately there is a strong effort to prioritize the protection of the environment by limiting the amount of waste that is actually being thrown out where it is put to no use.

Some of the key points this method focuses on are environmental management and pollution prevention. Furthermore, this includes recycling, using products to their full life cycle as intended by producers, and of course, reusing the waste that has been created among partnering firms. I found it interesting how the article noted that Greece, in particular, has been shown to have a production capacity of less than 60,000 tons of waste each year. Not much waste is generally recovered in Greece. Instead, it is shipped to neighboring countries like Italy and where it is then dealt with there.

One other interesting section I noticed in the article was the topic of waste compatibility. This really just talks about how compatible waste can be and how it is used for other things. An example from the reading talks vividly about agriculture and how most of the raw materials used in agriculture are fit for use in other sectors. Some of these listed materials can include malt, yeast, and seed residues in which they are all used for other farming activities. I also found it interesting how the physical characteristics of waste could affect their spatial allocation. I remember learning in my transportation class there are five main forms of transportation that are via: pipe, truck, air, boat, and rail. When deciding which form of transportation to pick when shipping goods, physical characteristics come into play. A great example of this from the article is found when the research talks about transporting gas and liquid waste. The most efficient way to transport this waste is obviously through pipes, rather than via truck. However, by doing it via pipe there is not a lot of waste that can be transported  as the space is rather limited compared to the trucking side. Therefore, the spatial allocation instantly decreases.