Industrial symbiosis and waste recovery in an Indian industrial area

Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 1278–1287

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Resources, Conservation and Recycling journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec

Industrial symbiosis and waste recovery in an Indian industrial area Ariana Bain a , Megha Shenoy b , Weslynne Ashton a , Marian Chertow a,∗ a b

Center for Industrial Ecology, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, 195, Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA Resource Optimization Initiative, Bangalore, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 17 February 2010 Received in revised form 21 April 2010 Accepted 21 April 2010 Keywords: Material flow analysis Industrial waste Recycling Informal sector Industrial ecology

a b s t r a c t Recovery, reuse and recycling of industrial residuals, often dismissed as wastes, are common in India and other industrializing countries largely due to lower associated costs. Some wastes are reused within the facility where they are generated, others are reused directly by nearby industrial facilities, and some are recycled via the formal and informal recycling markets. Direct inter-firm reuse is the cornerstone of the phenomenon termed industrial symbiosis, where firms cooperate in the exchange of material and energy resources. This study applies material flow analysis to an economically diverse industrial area in South India to characterize the recovery, reuse and recycling of industrial residuals. It quantifies the generation of waste materials from 42 companies as well as the materials that are directly traded across facilities and those that are recycled or disposed. This study encompasses a business cluster in Mysore in the State of Karnataka, and is the first in India to thoroughly quantify material flows to identify existing symbiotic connections in an industrial area. Examined industries in this industrial area generate 897,210 metric tons of waste residuals annually, and recovered 99.5% of these, 81% with reused by the companies that generated them, with one company, a sugar refinery, processing most of this amount. Geographic data show that operations within 20 km of the industrial area receive over 90% of residuals exiting facility gates. Two-thirds of this amount goes directly to other economic actors for reuse. This study makes key contributions to the literature in distinguishing how particular types of materials are reused in different ways, the geographic extent of symbiotic activities and the important role of the informal sector in industrial waste management in industrializing regions. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Manufacturing activities are on the rise in India and other parts of the developing world owing to the concentration of population and the relatively low cost of labor and other inputs for producing goods. India’s formal manufacturing sector accounted for 16% of its GDP in 2006 (Winters and Yusuf, 2007). There has been a significant rise in the export of these goods from 0.5% of world exports in 1980 to 0.9% in 2006 (Winters and Yusuf, 2007). In countries such as India, limited wealth and a large population contribute to resource scarcity, making thriftiness and reuse of materials common practices. As such, a high priority is placed on the recovery, reuse, and recycling of industrial process wastes that can cycle back into manufacturing processes. In this paper we focus on three methods of material recovery: (i) reuse within the facility where they are generated, (ii) through direct reuse among firms, and (iii) through informal recycling markets. Direct inter-firm reuse of waste is the cornerstone of the phenomenon termed industrial symbiosis (IS), where a group of firms

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 203 432 6197; fax: +1 203 432 5556. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Chertow). 0921-3449/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2010.04.007

in relative geographic proximity cooperate on resource management issues. Industrial symbiosis falls within the field of industrial ecology. Industrial ecology arose in the 1990s as a new discipline that places emphasis on the sustainability of energy and material flows. Complex networks of symbiotic industries, also known as industrial ecosystems, are thought to exist in many industrial regions, but may not yet be recognized (Chertow, 2007). Much more common are bilateral exchanges among firms, which are also referred to as ‘kernels’ of symbiosis (Chertow, 2007), green twinning or by-product synergies. Some scholars offer that industrial symbiosis is a critical factor in the sustainability of industrial regions as it promotes a collective approach to competitive advantage with both private and public benefits. They have concluded that sustainable industrial development efforts are more successful when small spontaneously evolved inter-firm exchanges are encouraged to grow rather than by their initiation from scratch (Schwarz and Steininger, 1997; Korhonen, 2002; Baas and Boons, 2004; Desrochers, 2004; Jacobsen and Anderberg, 2005; Chertow, 2007; Gibbs and Deutz, 2007). This study applies material flow analysis, a core methodology of industrial ecology, to an economically diverse industrial area in South India to quantify the generation of wastes and their recovery, reuse, and recycling by different strategies. The study area consists

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of two adjacent industrial estates populated by a diverse mix of over 60 independent facilities spanning a size range from micro and small-scale industries to large multinational firms. The analysis uncovers ‘kernels’ of industrial symbiosis and assesses the potential for further eco-industrial development. The article proceeds with a review of relevant literature on the nature of recycling and industrial symbiosis, including previous research in these areas from India. The research framework and methods used in this investigation are presented, followed by results of the case study and implications of the findings. We conclude with reflections on the significance of the present study and recommendations for future work including replication of the study.

2. Literature review

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2005). It can be broken down into five–six ‘layers’ starting with residential consumers and industries producing recyclable wastes and ending in industries that reprocess these materials (Fig. 1). Informal markets employ a large number of people but have several negative consequences: (i) unregulated pollution caused by reprocessing units, (ii) economic exploitation of an “unskilled” workforce, (iii) improper or unverified records of the amount of material flowing through enterprises, (iv) threats to human health from unprotected activities of the workers, and (v) tax evasion by economic actors dealing with these residuals. The number of people involved in informal recycling networks in urban areas is very high: at least 89,600 people were estimated to be involved in the informal recycling market in New Delhi (Agarwal et al., 2005) when its total population was about 14 million. More broadly, the informal sector in India could have employed as many as 394 million people in activities such as manufacturing, services, retail and recycling during 2004–2005 (Naik, 2009).

2.1. Waste, residual recovery and recycling 2.2. Industrial symbiosis The waste management hierarchy is an ordered set of preferred strategies that can be used to reduce the amount of waste being disposed (Graedel and Allenby, 1995). The hierarchy has five strategies, generally ordered in decreasing preference as follows: (i) waste minimization, (ii) reuse, (iii) material recycling, (iv) energy recovery and (v) waste disposal (Price and Joseph, 2000). In this hierarchy, the higher level preferences preserve the embedded energy of materials and maximize recovered resources. For example, minimizing waste conserves more energy when compared to reuse, while recycling conserves more energy and materials when compared to strategies to recover energy from materials. Disposal of waste is the least preferred strategy as the embedded energy of materials is lost. Therefore, higher levels of the hierarchy are more environmentally benign than the lower levels in most cases; with burying waste in the ground as the least desirable approach to waste management. The waste hierarchy has been incorporated into national waste legislation and policy in several countries (European Union, 1989; Department of the Environment, U.K., 1994, 1995) and is considered to be a simple guideline for extracting maximum embedded value from waste material. Various factors drive the demand for the recovery of materials in industrializing economies. These include differences in the economic value of: (i) primary (raw) material and secondary (residual) material, (ii) technology for extraction of primary material (iii) technology for substitution of secondary material for primary material, and (iv) market structure in developing countries (Bower, 1977; van Beukering, 1994). In addition, energy savings based on the reuse of materials are very important in developing economies (Powell, 1983; Krivtsov et al., 2004; Pimenteira et al., 2004), for example, energy savings over virgin production range from 60% for paper (Krivtsov et al., 2004) to 96% for aluminum (Pimenteira et al., 2004). Additionally, material reuse offers another advantage when it comes to climate change considerations. The decomposition of organic waste in landfills releases methane, a very potent greenhouse gas, so diverting these materials from landfills through appropriate reuse and recycling avoids significant increases in GHG emissions. The informal sector is the most important domain within which materials are recycled in industrializing countries. It is important to note that informal material trades occur in a grey market, that is, they are neither regulated, nor monitored by authorities (van Beukering, 1994). Because of this lack of regulation, very few actors keep records of the amounts and types of materials they handle. Lack of record keeping presents a major challenge for verification of the actual amounts of materials that are eventually recycled. The structure of the informal recycling sector in developing countries is complex (van Beukering, 1994; Choudhary, 2003; Agarwal et al.,

The field of industrial ecology marks its formal beginning with the publication of a 1989 article titled “Strategies for Manufacturing” in which the authors suggested that it was in the best interest of industry to reorganize themselves such that the waste of one industry becomes the input for another (Frosch and Gallopoulos, 1989). A complex network of industries in Kalundborg, Denmark that practiced this concept, termed industrial symbiosis (IS), gained worldwide attention in the same year (Gertler and Ehrenfeld, 1994). Three types of symbiotic transactions can occur: (i) utilizing waste as raw material inputs from others (by-product exchanges), (ii) sharing utilities or access to services (such as energy or waste treatment), and (iii) cooperating on issues of common interest such as emergency planning, training or sustainability planning (Chertow et al., 2008). Industrial symbiosis offers an analytical framework for understanding how groups of firms cooperate in the pursuit of competitive advantage. IS researchers examine cooperative management of resources among industries to understand environmental, social and economic benefits and costs associated with these interactions and their significance in these networks. Authorities in the United States, Canada, Europe and East Asia planned “eco-industrial parks” that attempted to put industrial symbiosis into practice during the mid-1990s. The attempts in the West met mixed success (Gibbs, 2003), with more significant results in East Asia (Zhu et al., 2007; Shi et al., 2010). The Chinese, for example, have implemented a national “Circular Economy” law in which eco-industrial parks are a key feature. In 2007, the government designated 27 trial EIPs and in 2008, three of these were selected as national demonstration EIPs including the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) (Shi et al., 2010). Assessments of industrial areas in several regions around the world have found that voluntary, economically driven exchanges among companies are a key factor in the success of symbiotic exchange networks among companies (van Berkel, 2006). However, encouraging the development of larger symbiotic networks from their nascent stage requires a deeper understanding of the dynamics of these interactive networks. In industrialized countries, economic and regulatory factors are thought to be the main drivers of industrial symbiosis (van Berkel, 2006), with communication and trust among firm managers being important “soft” enablers of these relationships (Cohen-Rosenthal, 2000; Christensen, 2004). IS occurs most commonly among industrial actors in heavy process industries who must comply with existing norms and regulations (van Berkel, 2006). Chertow’s taxonomy of material exchanges includes reuse within firms, among co-located firms, among firms in a broader region, and with a virtually defined geographic boundary (Chertow, 2000). Several authors

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Fig. 1. Structure of the open-loop recycling market adapted from Agarwal et al. (2005).

emphasize the necessity of extending the geographic boundaries for consideration of residual reuse beyond the formal boundaries of industrial parks as materials are more likely to find uses among diverse industries in a larger area (Sterr and Ott, 2004). While the literature in this field has grown significantly in the last few years, there remain relatively few studies about existing industrial symbiosis in developing countries, and even fewer examining the role of the informal sector in these activities. 2.3. Industrial symbiosis in India Formal IS research is new to India, although a few studies have examined ways to plan and implement eco-industrial parks (Singhal and Kapur, 2002; Saraswat, 2008). Previous IS studies have revealed some existing ‘kernels’ of symbiosis and suggested changes in policy to monitor pollution and waste management at the estate level, rather than at the facility level, and to encourage cooperative approaches to solve these problems (Singhal and Kapur, 2002; Unnikrishnan et al., 2004; Saraswat, 2008). The Naroda by-product exchange network provides the foremost example of eco-industrial development in India (vonHauff and Wilderer, 2000; Lowe, 2001; Unnikrishnan et al., 2004; Saraswat, 2008). The Naroda industrial estate houses approximately 700 companies in a 30 km2 region in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. In December 1998, research funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research surveyed 477 of the industries in Naroda to suggest potentially beneficial industrial symbiosis initiatives (Lowe, 2001). These included: (i) converting spent acid with high concentrations of H2 SO4 to commercial grade FeSO4 , (ii) selling sun dried chemical gypsum to cement manufacturers, replacing

the need for disposal, (iii) reducing the hazardous content of iron sludge produced by dye manufacturing industries, so that it could be used by brick manufacturers, in addition to reducing the amount of iron sludge being produced, and (iv) converting approximately 100 t per month of industrial food waste to biogas (vonHauff and Wilderer, 2000). More than a decade later, however, activities other than a common effluent treatment plant are still in the planning stages. A planned pilot project would create a ‘waste exchange bank’ to facilitate the future exchange of residuals across companies (Gopichandran, 2008; Express News Service, 2009). Another study by the National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai, at the Taloja Industrial Estate, Raigad District, Maharashtra, revealed two existing by-product exchanges: (i) scrubbed tailgas from a petrochemical industry sold to another petrochemical industry for the manufacture of maleic anhydride, and (ii) brewery wastes sent to a neighboring chicken farm for use as poultry feed (Unnikrishnan et al., 2004). The study identified six other potential avenues for symbiotic exchanges involving chemical solvents used by industries in this estate (Unnikrishnan et al., 2004), but no reports of progress beyond this stage have been found. The Narela industrial estate in New Delhi was designed to utilize cooperative solutions to minimize environmental and economic costs. This estate was constructed with a common effluent treatment plant (CETP) for irrigation of a green belt around the industrial estate, common guest houses, common storage facilities, and common worker tenements (Indian Express, 1998). Management issues not only extended the construction period of this estate (from 1978 to 1998) but also resulted in under-allotment of industrial sites within the estate and inefficient operation of common facilities leading to sub-optimal functioning (Indian Express, 1998). This case

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alludes to the administrative challenges facing successful operation of cooperative strategies such as industrial symbiosis in India. The German Development Agency (GTZ) has recently initiated efforts to promote eco-industrial developments in India, with efforts focused in Andhra Pradesh. An international conference on eco-industrial parks was held in Hyderabad, Andra Pradesh in July 2009. Their efforts will promote EID training among manufacturers in existing estates and provide technical support to new industrial estates in Andhra Pradesh; industrial estates in Nacharam and Mallapur have been chosen as pilot estates (GTZ, 2009). These efforts in India demonstrate that while there is ongoing interest in promoting industrial symbiosis and eco-industrial development, implementation has been a major challenge. The informal sector has not been included in these initiatives despite its importance in developing economies. Some researchers have called for demonstrating the business case for IS to encourage eco-industrial development that builds on existing practices and achievements (van Berkel, 2006). Based on previous research and practice we expect there is a huge variety and amount of industrial symbiosis occurring spontaneously all over the country. By examining whether and how symbiosis is already taking place in parts of South India, and identifying the business models associated with it, we extend this type of research to include the informal sector. 3. Methods 3.1. Research framework This study applies material flow analysis (MFA) to an economically diverse industrial area in South India to quantify the generation and disposition of industrial wastes. MFA is based on the ‘law of conservation of mass and energy’ and is a core industrial ecology methodology. It focuses on the input, consumption, storage and output of materials through a defined system. This defined system could be an individual industrial facility, an industrial area, or a region. MFA results can identify materials that are currently disposed, suggest potential alternative uses, and assess resource efficiency improvements within a system (Graedel and Allenby, 1995). MFA research in India has examined: anthropogenic effects on coastal nitrogen cycling (Purvaja et al., 2008; Velmurugan et al., 2008), plastics flows (Mutha et al., 2006), e-waste (Jain and Sareen, 2006), and copper flows (Kapur, 2006). MFA has also informed waste and wastewater reuse and recycling in several industrial regions in India such as: textile industries in Tirupur, cast iron foundries in Haora, and leather industries along the river Palar in Tamil Nadu (Erkman and Ramaswamy, 2003). The current study is the first in India to apply MFA to examine industrial symbiotic exchanges of a broad range of non-hazardous industrial wastes among facilities. This study compares waste generation, recovery and disposal. We apply the term recovery to activities that collect matter fit for disposal and divert it to other processes where it has a productive use, i.e. reuse and recycling of waste (van Beukering, 1994; Graedel and Allenby, 1995). Recycling typically involves the physical transformation of materials, whereas reuse usually does not. Within this broad definition of recovery we examine three main activities: (i) materials that remain within the facility where the residual is generated, (ii) direct transfer of residuals across parties, either through purchase or exchange (predominantly recognized as industrial symbiosis), and (iii) materials traded through the informal recycling sector. We broaden the definition of IS to include firm-farmer and firm-informal small enterprise exchanges in addition to the inter-firm exchanges that typically characterize symbiosis studies in industrialized nations. These interactions would tend to be inter-firm in a more formal economy, for example, in a developed economy where corporate industrial farming is becoming the

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norm, a firm-farmer exchange would be inter-firm. However, in a less developed, agricultural economy, this exchange is from a firm to an informal actor. In this study, symbiosis covers both types of exchange. Understanding current practices in the reuse and recycling of materials is critical to future industrial research and planning in India. This study thus creates a methodological framework to address the research questions: i. How can the recovery of non-hazardous industrial process residuals be systematically quantified, mapped, and characterized in India? ii. Do residual exchanges occur across facilities in an industrial cluster in India, and if so, what is their significance relative to other recovery methods? iii. Of the remaining wastes produced by industries, how much does the informal recycling market recover and how much is disposed? iv. How can companies and governments pursue additional opportunities for eco-industrial development? 3.2. Data collection and analysis The study characterizes energy, water and residual material flows in two adjacent industrial estates in Nanjangud. Nanjangud is a town approximately 20 km from Mysore, the closest city, in the South Indian state of Karnataka. In 2001, Nanjangud and Mysore had respective approximate populations of 50,000 and 800,000 (Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, 2001). These two industrial estates are collectively referred to as the Nanjangud Industrial Area (NIA) in this article. NIA is home to over 60 industrial facilities in diverse industries, from small-scale enterprises to large domestically owned companies and subsidiaries of multinational corporations. Most of the industries in these two estates are members of the Nanjangud Industrial Association. All of the facilities interviewed are either members of the Nanjangud Industrial Association, or are located within one of the two estates. Structured interviews with managers from 42 NIA facilities provided data from the 2007 financial year. Two of the authors collected the following data from each facility: (i) quantities of raw materials, water, and energy consumed by each of the industrial facilities, and (ii) quantities of products, waste, and energy generated by each of the industries. All facilities are subject to a zero liquid effluent discharge policy, so only non-water outputs leave individual facility gates in the NIA system. Companies selfreported data during the interviews. Where possible, data were verified through follow-up interviews with the reported recipients. Environmental audit reports submitted by each company to the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) for the 2006 financial year provided additional data verification. These environmental audits contain information on types and quantities of waste, chemical contents and quantity of wastewater and gaseous pollutants emitted at each of these industries. Facilities report nonhazardous residuals to the KSPCB, but the KSPCB does not regulate or track them systematically. From the initial interview data, snowball sampling identified scrap dealers and biomass residue suppliers associated with the industrial facilities. Snowball sampling is a technique widely used to construct a study population in the social sciences. Initially, a defined population is chosen for the study, these individuals are then asked to identify additional members of the network outside of the initial population (Goodman, 1961). Dealer and supplier interviews involved 5 scrap collection agents and 5 biomass residue suppliers located within a 40 km radius of the industrial estates. The material flow (input and output) data from each company were entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and catego-

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Fig. 2. Final disposition of all wastes generated by NIA facilities.

rized according to material types, recovery activity and geographic disposition. The data for all companies were then aggregated according to these categories and analyzed statistically. 4. Results 4.1. Overall flows of industrial waste NIA facilities generate 897,210 metric tons of waste annually. Companies report recovering or sending 893,120 t (99.5%) for reuse or recycling, and disposing 4090 t either at the generating facilities or offsite. Of the 893,120 t of recovered residuals, the generating facilities reuse 81% (724,630 t) onsite, while 19% leave the gates of generating facilities (Fig. 2). Of the materials sent offsite, NIA generating facilities directly transfer 67% of the materials (113,650 t) to other parties who utilize the by-products as-is, however 45,260 t (27%) of non-hazardous ash reported as transferred for direct reuse could not be verified. The informal recycling market receives 9580 t (6%). Residual material data were divided into five functional aggregation categories as follows: (i) biomass: bagasse, (ii) biomass: other, (iii) food residue, (iv) non-hazardous ash, and (v) nonhazardous gas. A total of 817,360 t (or 91% of all waste generated within the system) are bio-based materials corresponding to the first three categories: biomass residues with little nutritional, but high energy value, such as bagasse and paddy husk; and food residues with high nutritional and low energy value including molasses, sludge from effluent treatment plants (ETPs), and coffee grounds. For biomass, the categories are split into bagasse, a fibrous by-product of sugar cane processing, and other material. Dividing biomass into two categories increases the resolution of the analysis, which the bagasse would otherwise dominate. The remainder includes spent acid, metal, plastic scraps and carbon dioxide gas that are aggregated into a single category “All Others” unless otherwise noted. Recovery and disposal of all residuals by type are detailed in Table 1.

Fig. 3. Destination of recycled residuals leaving generating facilities in NIA (metric tons).

4.2. Geographic categorization of industrial waste flows Four geographic categories divide the industrial waste recovery data to distinguish the mechanisms and rationale for different reuse and recycling strategies: (i) within generating facilities, (ii) across NIA system facilities, (iii) within 20 km of NIA system, and (iv) greater than 20 km. Of the 169,230 t (19%) of residuals that are transported offsite, 159,720 t (94%) remain within 20 km of the NIA system. Visual representation of this analysis (Fig. 3) excludes flows remaining at the facility because they are relatively large in size and eliminate the visual resolution when flows are drawn to scale. 4.3. Within generating facilities 98% of the 724,630 t of industrial waste that are reused or recycled at the facilities where they are generated are biomass and food residues. Nearly all biomass residues are recovered for onsite energy generation: 99% are combusted to generate steam, electricity, or both through cogeneration. Of 296,360 t of food-grade residues, industrial or ancillary processes reuse 64%. For example, land application absorbs a large portion of non-hazardous sludge from several onsite ETPs. Generating facilities report disposing or storing very few residuals (3340 t) including: plastic (1990 t), hazardous ash (210 t), hazardous sludge from effluent treatment plants (550 t), hazardous chemicals (610 t). Industrial waste generation and management at five facilities are highlighted below for a more in-depth look at the mechanisms of reuse and recycling by different companies. 4.3.1. Sugar refinery A large sugar refinery produces 797,160 t of residuals, or 89% of total NIA system residuals. Bagasse (508,800 t) is the dominant material; it is combusted onsite in a 36 MW steam-electricity cogeneration facility. A total of 4 MW is dedicated to facility requirements, while the remainder is exported to the electricity grid. The cogeneration facility produces 6600 t of boiler and fly ash,

Table 1 Overall recovery, reuse and recycling of residuals at NIA (metric tons). Total mass of residuals

Total recovered

Reused within facility

Informal market recycling

Symbiotic exchange

Biomass: bagasse Biomass: other Food residues Non-hazardous ash Non-hazardous gas All others

508,780 16,970 296,360 49,790 2250 23,060

508,780 16,970 296,360 49,790 2250 18,970

508,780 12,900 188,370 4520 1440 8620

0 0 0 0 0 9580

0 4070 107,990 45,270 810 770

Total

897,210

893,120

724,630

9580

158,910

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Fig. 4. Comparison of final disposition of all wastes generated by NIA facilities, including and excluding the sugar refinery.

and reports giving 5400 t to local farmers as a soil amendment. The refinery composts the remainder with spent wash and residual press mud and sells the product as a commercial good. Molasses is produced in significant quantities as a by-product of refining sugar from sugar cane. An onsite distillery uses molasses to produce alcohol, or sends it to a nearby distilling company. If all materials data from this facility are excluded, the overall recovery rate drops from 99.5% to 96% (see Fig. 4). 4.3.2. Paper manufacturer A paper manufacturer generates 26,280 t of waste (3% of the total for the system), none of which is reused onsite. The facility purchases biomass residues such as paddy husk, coffee husk, coconut shells and groundnut shells to fuel its onsite 6.5 MW steamelectricity cogeneration facility. The facility annually consumes 80,640 t of biomass. A total of 4.5 MW are dedicated to factory requirements, while 2.0 MW are exported to the electricity grid. Combustion residues annually total 21,900 t of boiler and fly ash, all of which is reportedly given to local farmers as a soil amendment. Other residuals include 4380 t of ETP sludge that is sold to a fertilizer company and 2 t of sewage treatment plant sludge that has an unknown destination. 4.3.3. Food processor A coffee and milk beverage producer generates 18,160 t of waste, or 2% of all NIA system residuals. Of this, 12,700 t remain at the facility where nearly all are reincorporated into facility processes. A total of 3650 t of food residues (primarily coffee grounds) are given to an oil processor within the NIA who dehydrates and extracts oil from this residue to make biomass fuel. The food processor then receives 1830 t of this biomass fuel in return; it also sells 980 t of boiler and fly ash to local brick manufacturers. 4.3.4. Distillery A distillery generates 9150 t of residuals; predominantly mature compost (6000 t) that is sold to local dealers. The facility contains a biomass (primarily paddy husk) fueled 10 MW methane digester that produces and combusts 1440 t of CH4 , and exports electricity to an adjacent alcohol bottling facility via a direct, non-grid tied connection on an as-needed basis. Other residuals include 810 t of CO2 sold to an adjacent compression facility, 30 t of isopropyl alcohol sold to the dairy industry for processing, and 40 t of higher alcohol sold to neighboring states for unknown uses. 4.3.5. Oil processor An oil processor receives 7900 t of food-grade and biomass residues (such as coffee grounds, coconut, and sawdust) from four companies within NIA and another outside NIA. These materials comprise 82% of its total inputs. It extracts oils and moisture from these materials and sells the oil to a soap manufacturer. The facility

also sells 100% of the desiccated coffee grounds to other facilities in the NIA for use as boiler fuel, and sells the residual coconut as an ingredient for cattle feed. 4.4. Among NIA facilities NIA facilities interact with each other in a number of ways. Facilities buy, sell, and trade primary products and by-products, borrow raw materials on a returnable basis, and offer other types of nonmaterial based cooperation. Of the verified symbiotic transfers, 95% are food residues returned to an industrial process, while 4% are biomass residues used as fuel. In total, 11 symbiotic interactions across NIA facilities were uncovered and verified (Fig. 5). Ten of these are material transactions among facilities within NIA, and one is electricity sharing. In addition, the authors recorded 17 instances of residual transfer from facilities within NIA to other parties outside this boundary for reuse. In total, 113,652 t of waste materials were verified as directly reused by others (see Table 2). Four symbiotic transactions involve materials other than biomass residues: carbon dioxide, spent acid, non-hazardous ash, and granite polishing residues. The carbon dioxide trade was a case of intentional co-location as the distillery, a bottling facility, and a carbon dioxide compressor share a single industrial compound, material inputs into each other’s processes, and security services. Spent acid from an aromatic chemical manufacturer neutralizes the alkaline effluent from an adjacent textile facility before the neutralized effluent is used to irrigate a small onsite sugar cane plantation (a co-product that is then sold to the sugar refinery). The ash reused within NIA has uncertain value. It is reportedly used by a neighboring facility during construction and staging. The granite polishing residues are given for free to local construction projects as foundation materials with the incentive that it saves the producing company money on disposal costs. In addition to materials exchanges, a distillery in the NIA system generates 10 MW of electricity from a methane digester run on paddy husk and exports electricity to a neighboring facility as needed during power cuts via a direct, non-grid-tied connection. Fig. 5 maps the symbiotic exchanges originating from NIA facilities. One highly symbiotic facility, the oil processor described above, receives residuals directly from other facilities as its main inputs and trades or sells all of its own by-products directly to other facilities. The two other central companies, the sugar refinery and the distillery, produce 100,155 t or 88% of all verified symbiotically exchanged materials in the NIA system. 4.4.1. Unverified industrial symbiosis Apart from biomass residues used for energy recovery and food residues for processing, the largest waste stream from the system is 49,790 t of non-hazardous ash. Companies report a number

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Fig. 5. Symbiotic flows originating from NIA facilities.

of different uses for the non-hazardous ash: application as fertilizer, addition to cement bricks, incorporation into incense sticks as pulverized carbon, and for leveling uneven land. Data verification was difficult because the informal actors were reluctant to provide interviews. Two interviews with cement brick manufacturers suggested that, though they have in the past, neither currently takes ash because of a public perception that brick strength is reduced by adding it. This perception is based on the darker color of brick manufactured by the addition of ash from biomass combustion. Additional cement brick manufacturers were contacted for interviews, but they either stated that they no longer took the residual, or they declined to comment. By far, farmers in the surrounding area were the largest reported recipients of ash, applying it as a supplementary fertilizer. A follow-up study conducted field interviews with a random sample of farmers in the region around the NIA (n = 90); only 24% of respondents confirmed receiving and using ash from NIA facilities. These responses suggest that some portion of this material is not ultimately beneficially recovered. 4.5. Beyond NIA (within 20 km and beyond 20 km) All residuals that are transported within 20 km of NIA are sent directly to others for reuse (thus this category matches materi-

als traded symbiotically in the previous section). Food residues returned to industrial processes and non-hazardous ash account for 45% and 41%, respectively of this amount. Only 6% of residuals are transported to a distance greater than 20 km outside of the NIA system or to an unknown destination. Nearly all this waste material is reported as eventually recycled or sent directly to other facilities. 4.6. Informal market recycling While the bulk of material is reused within generating facilities or reused directly within 20 km of NIA, 9580 t of “All Other” materials are recycled through the informal market. The major materials (by mass) that make up this stream are listed in Fig. 6. More than 99% of glass, metals (ferrous and non-ferrous), paper, rubber, waste oil and wood are reportedly recycled through the informal market. The bulk of textile residues are reused within generating facilities, with some informal market recycling. Plastic material is the major anomaly. Facilities report recycling 3% of plastic waste, and store or dispose the remainder while awaiting new regulations governing their final disposition. Five informal scrap dealers who purchase residuals from NIA facilities were interviewed. Scrap dealers tend to purchase all

Table 2 Mass of residuals exiting NIA generating facilities that are in symbiotic exchanges (metric tons). Residual category

Mass of residuals exiting generating facilities

Mass of residuals in symbiotic exchange

Verified mass exchanged

Unverified mass exchanged

Biomass: other Food residue Non-hazardous ash Non-hazardous gas Spent acid All other residuals

4070 107,990 45,270 810 7 11,080

4070 107,990 45,270 810 2 770

4070 107,990 10 810 2 770

0 0 45,260 0 0 0

Total

169,230

158,910

113,650

45,260

Totals may not agree due to rounding.

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and nutritive content. Indian industries have utilized agricultural residues as fuels in their production processes for centuries. The biomass residues used for energy generation in NIA tend to remain at the facilities where they are generated, or are purchased from specialist suppliers. Three facilities produce electricity in grid-tied power plants, taking advantage of the Karnataka State Electricity Supply Act (1991) that encourages independent production in order to ease the burden on generating capacities at state utilities (Sakri et al., 2006). All use majority biomass feed stocks, and use supplemental coal to supply sufficient energy density to reduce incomplete combustion. Biomass residues are easily combustible in boilers designed for coal. The energy efficiency of the boilers may be lower when fueled by biomass, as it is less energetically dense per unit volume. 5.2. Self-organized industrial symbiosis

Fig. 6. Recycling of major materials in “All Others” residual category.

unused or untraded waste produced by a firm and transport the materials to their own facilities where they are separated. Therefore, NIA facilities can claim 100% waste “recycling”. A large portion of these residuals must be profitably recycled, or scrap dealers would not pay to take them, but some components, ultimately, are not profitably recycled. Only one scrap dealer provided complete material balance information; the data revealed that he disposes as much as 40% of the residuals collected. Many of the scrap dealers are individuals operating without government regulation, so the recycling that does occur is usually conducted informally and at a small scale often without sufficient human protection (personal observation) and with significant material and energy losses (van Beukering, 1994). However, informal recycling may provide significant economic benefits to participants and promote the recycling of otherwise unrecoverable materials. 5. Discussion Five major patterns emerge from the MFA that deserve some attention: (i) the nearly complete recovery of waste through industrial symbiosis and facility-level reuse, (ii) the unconscious self-organization of industrial symbiosis amongst NIA facilities, (iii) the limited geographic distance, beyond the NIA, for symbiosis and recycling activities, (iv) the distinctions between reuse through industrial symbiosis and recycling through informal markets, and (v) the asymmetric power dynamics between formal and informal actors in the system. 5.1. Waste recovery Companies in Nanjangud exhibit an almost complete recovery (99.5%) of all the waste materials that they generate. Even when the sugar refinery that dominates the material flows in the region is removed, the recovery rate remains very high (96%). This suggests that the companies in NIA find it in their best economic interest to find productive uses for any wastes that they generate, either within their own facilities or by sending it other economic actors. Like much of the Indian sub-continent, the Nanjangud Industrial Area is located in a region where the majority of the population is involved in the agricultural sector, either for subsistence or for market-production. Many of the industries in the region are based on processing agricultural products and thus generate organic residues from their production. These materials are easily recovered because they are not hazardous and have high calorific

The results indicate that NIA facilities have unconsciously selforganized into a symbiotic network with 10 transfers of residuals across facilities within NIA and 17 more originating from NIA facilities to others outside it. In addition, 8 NIA facilities receive wastes as material inputs, such as paper manufacturers that purchase waste paper for recycling, while 16 NIA facilities combust residual biomass to generate energy. The revelation of such a complex network of inter-firm linkages supports the assertion that such networks already exist throughout the world and need to be discovered and built upon, rather than planned (Chertow, 2007). Industrial symbiosis in the NIA exists in a regulatory framework absent of non-hazardous waste disposal regulations and a culture in which repeated reuse and recycling of materials is the norm. This differs from many eco-industrial networks in industrialized regions, which were primarily seen as driven by a combination of regulatory restrictions, most often on waste disposal, and economic considerations. Further analysis of NIA to elucidate relationships between total numbers of industries in the area, the diversity of these industries, and numbers of symbiotic interactions will be useful in making comparisons to other symbiotic networks. Additionally, future uncovering studies can utilize MFA as a core method to comprehensively characterize and map waste flows and quantify relative magnitudes of residual treatment strategies in a manner that is consistent across cases. 5.3. Limited geographic disposition of industrial waste Most wastes that leave the generating facilities do not travel farther than 20 km beyond NIA. Generating facilities directly sell or exchange the bulk of residuals with other facilities within this radius. A small geographic boundary suggests a high local demand, or that transportation costs discourage transporting heavy waste with low market values over larger distances. Reusing materials within this smaller geography implies that firms receiving these residuals realize savings in transportation and material costs by taking advantage of locally available supplies. There are also environmental benefits resulting from lower transportation emissions, space and GHG emissions savings from reduced landfilling, with energy savings and increased efficiency from reusing rather than extracting and processing virgin materials. Having a local supplier for the input material with whom the company has an ongoing relationship improves supply chain security. Further research is needed to determine the extent of these boundaries as symbiotic networks in other regions such as TEDA, China, indicate larger geographic dispersal. Companies in TEDA send more waste materials to others for reuse outside the boundaries of the industrial area (48%) than within it (33%) with an average distance of 28.2 km (Shi et al., 2010).

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5.4. Distinctions between industrial symbiosis and informal market recycling Based on the magnitude, by mass, of different residual treatments, our data suggest that priorities for residual management strategies in this region are: (i) onsite reuse, (ii) by-product exchange, (iii) informal market recycling, and (iv) disposal. These preferences are probably due to a number of factors including the market value of the residual, cost savings on raw materials or on waste disposal, transaction costs, brand reputation, and convenience as well as less tangible factors such as existing social networks and cultural norms. It is likely that reuse requiring significant investments, such as building a cogeneration plant, are more desirable to be done in-house where the company can retain control of the assets and operations, as seen in the TEDA case in China (Shi, 2009). A pattern emerges in the types of materials symbiotically exchanged versus those sold to informal recycling agents. Informal scrap dealers frequently purchase waste with properties similar to fungible commodities, those with relatively uniform publicized values and sales markets outside the local area, such as glass, plastic, paper, and rubber. Conversely, firms commonly symbiotically trade materials that lack a standardized monetary value or market, such as food residues. Symbiotic reuse of industrial residuals has the advantage of low transportation costs and related emissions by virtue of being reused within a relatively small geographic region (94% of materials within 20 km in this case). In addition, exchanges among formal entities enable verification of information about residual management. 5.5. Role of informal actors The work of Hernando de Soto and others suggests that while informal actors are critical for the functioning of formal economies in the developing world, the lack of property rights and structures for accessing capital and credit prohibit these actors from realizing greater benefits (de Soto, 1993). This research has highlighted an important, if still uncertain, role of informal agents in the reuse and recycling of industrial waste in NIA. Linking large companies in the formal sector to informal agents reveals interesting asymmetrical power dynamics in these relationships. There are two main sets of informal agents involved in this study: farmers and smallscale brick manufacturers who are given non-hazardous ash for land application and for brickmaking, respectively, and recyclers of industrial wastes who collect materials from industries and channel it to reprocessors. The informal actors are given waste materials that larger companies cannot find value for internally or trade to nearby facilities; they accept these materials to maintain other beneficial aspects of the relationships. Larger companies can report that they recycle 100% of their wastes by sending wastes to recipients. But if the recipients do not formally keep track of final disposition quantities, it is difficult to verify the final destination of these materials. Environmental regulations in Karnataka do not require that facilities document and track non-hazardous waste, so little is known about the informal actors who deal with them. In addition, recycling agents hesitate to reveal information because the sector operates with extremely low profit margins and individuals have legitimate competitive concerns. These two factors have led to a lack of quantitative information on the operations of both informal symbiotic activities and informal recycling markets. Tracking non-hazardous material flows through all registered and unregistered facilities could help clarify the role that this sector plays in recycling materials in large developing countries such as India. A more effective and environmentally responsible recycling system could have social benefits for the high number of low-skilled workers involved in recycling activities, and

may be more desirable than reducing the amounts of material handled by this informal recycling sector, at least in the short to medium term. Government bodies, such as the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, with the help of new environmental policies, have a role to play in regulating and tracking non-hazardous waste, encouraging their recovery, and preventing the exploitation of informal recyclers. 5.6. Future of industrial symbiosis in India The present study reveals high levels of residual recovery through industrial symbiosis in the Nanjangud Industrial Area. The results highlight the significance of self-organized symbiotic exchanges among firms in the absence of regulatory pressures. The study identifies opportunities for expanding symbiosis in the cluster and distinguishes different opportunities for symbiosis and informal recycling. Finally, it shows the need for considering the role of informal actors in a symbiotic network, in order to address issues of social equity. Strengthening the existing inter-firm network in NIA by encouraging additional connections between NIA facilities and new enterprises or individuals, either formal or informal, could improve the residual handling process and allow participating facilities to realize the benefits of agglomerated waste streams, such as non-hazardous ash. Eco-industrial development in India is difficult to assess because the type of data collection reported here is not required and not often executed. Studies similar to this one, which first characterize existing symbiotic relationships, and then identify further opportunities, including important actors to be engaged, could be utilized in other regions. Future studies could illustrate the economic, environmental and social benefits of industrial symbiosis and encourage its development. 6. Conclusion This study found extremely high rates of material and energy recovery in the Nanjangud Industrial Area. By applying material flow analysis to a defined system of facilities in India, we were able to quantify and characterize the recovery and disposition of various types of industrial waste. Companies in the uncovered network reuse their own by-products, share by-products with other local companies, and engage with local informal recycling markets. Symbiotic exchange among local companies was the second most important reuse strategy, while informal recycling accounted for most of the remainder of materials, and less than 1% were actually disposed. Whether such high recovery rates would be found in industrial districts throughout India remains unclear. The sugar refinery produces 87% of the total residuals recovered; other configurations of industrial companies may not have this sort of lead player. From a thermodynamic standpoint, the NIA produces an impressively small amount of disposed waste. Further analysis could calculate the environmental and economic lifecycle costs and benefits of the system. The high levels of symbiosis and recycling found reflect that these resources are valuable and that actors in both the formal and informal sectors capture and recycle these materials; however, in order to draw more generalized conclusions from this paper, comparable analyses are necessary. As an early study of this kind in India, these results can build a foundation for a broader body of knowledge covering symbiosis, reuse, and recycling practices in India. Such studies can serve as a building block for companies to improve collaborative waste management practices and highlight opportunities for governments to guide and support these efforts. References Agarwal A, Singhmar A, Kulshrestha M, Mittal AK. Municipal solid waste recycling and associated markets in Delhi, India. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2005;44:73–90.

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