During the past summer months the Public Waste Agency of Flanders (OVAM) kicked off the living lab on industrial symbiosis in Belgium.

Building on its experience to facilitate the cooperation and the symbiosis between industrial partners and with the research and knowledge centres, the OVAM organised different gatherings. These intended to discover the potential for a software tool matching the supply and demand for (secondary) raw materials from waste streams. The OVAM also wanted to reflect with its partners on the challenges facing the building sector while making the transition from a linear to a circular economy.

  • On 22 and 29 June 2017, stakeholders from several industrial sectors, waste traders, and research institutions met to discuss the pros and cons of an online symbiosis platform.
  • On 25 August, key stakeholders of the construction and demolition sector met with government officials and researchers. This time the aim was to get to grips with key questions and challenges of urban mining for the building and demolition sector.

We have learned a lot from these meetings of the first Belgian living lab on symbiosis. It now remains for the OVAM and the stakeholders to draw conclusions from the discussions. It is still a difficult task to bring some of these questions to a higher level. These guiding questions for the further research will steer us along with our partners towards innovative solutions.