Anant Centre for Sustainability has published a new study on Industrial symbiosis in Indian industrial estates. Titled ‘Industrial Symbiosis in India - Challenge or Opportunity? Learnings from a study of Naroda Industrial Estate, Gujarat’, the report analysed the challenges of waste exchange among 65+ manufacturing companies in the Naroda Industrial Estate, Ahmedabad. The report's primary purpose is to encourage collaboration and exchange underutilized (non-hazardous) waste materials of a company or the sector with another company to achieve a competitive advantage and attain a closed-loop materials system within geographic proximity.

Naroda Industrial Estate (NIE) comprises more than 1200 manufacturing companies and is considered one of the largest eco-industrial development sites founded by the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation. The study performed quantitative and qualitative research methods to evaluate the material flow (raw materials, products, and waste materials of a company), the monetary flow of the waste materials and conducted social network analysis. The study revealed how 78 per cent of the waste generated from an industrial estate is sold, traded, or donated to formal and informal waste dealers, while 13 per cent of the waste materials are dumped or destroyed in an open field. It also discovered that only 9 per cent of the waste materials are reused within the generating facilities.

The pandemic caused by the novel virus, Covid-19, has revealed the risks associated with inadequate sanitation practices. Therefore we must realise now that focused attention to the colossal amounts of toxic industrial waste is imperative. Further, for facilitating the post-covid economic recovery, we can no longer afford to throw away waste that potentially holds value. Waste to wealth practices needs to be maximised to ensure that we are able to build back the economies and livelihoods of people.