Industrial Symbiosis: A Panacea to Industrial Waste Management Challenges in Harare

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) has been known to contribute significantly to environmental and economic benefits for industrial clusters and by-product reuse. With the challenge posed by industrial waste to the environment and human health, the concept is explored as a panacea to Industrial Waste challenges in Harare with the purpose of moving from the traditional linear economy to a Circular Economy (CE) toward achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 12 of sustainable production, consumption patterns. Questionnaires that yielded a 70% response rate facilitated the exploration by identifying types of industries, waste generated, and industrial waste management challenges faced. This was carried out to assist in identifying opportunities for synergies in IS implementation. Industry experts on CE and Central and Local Government experts were also interviewed from a regulatory point of view. A review of the current industrial waste management system revealed challenges of mounting solid waste attributed to negative economic policies and political, technical, and operational limitations. The Local Authority is characterized by a weak technical and administrative capacity to implement sound waste management mechanisms and a mismatch between planning and waste management policy implementation that create gaps between waste policies and decision-making. The research further revealed that ineffective industrial waste management has detrimental effects on environmental sustainability. Therefore, implementing IS diverts waste from the landfill contributing towards a CE. Furthermore, recommendations on how IS can be implemented towards a CE were made.