Industrial, manufacturing, waste management, and recycling companies, as well as entrepreneurs from across KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) will attend an industrial symbiosis and business opportunity workshop on Tuesday, 27 August 2019 in Ladysmith. The attendees will engage in discussions that promote reuse and recycling solutions that encourage ways to use the waste from one company as raw materials for another, thereby diverting waste from landfills and reducing costs to companies.

This workshop comes at a time when South African companies are increasingly cutting costs as a result of the continued concerns for the country’s economy which have been compounded by the recent projections by Moody’s for a potential recession by the end of 2019.

During the workshop, the KwaZulu-Natal Industrial Symbiosis Programme (KISP) will match companies to enable the exchange of waste or under-utilised resources of one company for use by another. The exchanges underscore the benefits of industrial symbiosis that include the creation of jobs, enterprise development, and the reduction of waste disposal costs.

Through KISP, the National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA), in partnership with the KZN Department of Economic Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs (edtea) aims to find sustainable solutions for waste materials and divert waste from landfill, while at the same time creating real financial benefits for companies that participate in the programme.

Kevin Cilliers, NCPC-SA Regional Manager for KZN says, “The programme will build business networks aimed at identifying mutually profitable links or synergies between businesses so that under-utilised and under-valued resources from one business are recovered and reused by another business.”

The industrial symbiosis workshop is offered as a free facilitation service by the NCPC-SA. Attendance at the workshop is free, but registration is essential as space is limited.