The Department of Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (DESTEA) in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will launch the Free State Industrial Symbiosis Programme in Bloemfontein at Bon Hotel on the 27th May 2022.

DESTEA recently signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the CSIR in an effort to reduce waste in the Province, both at the landfills and in our Industrial Parks which is intended to link residents of the park, and where possible, to ensure waste of one factory is utilised as inputs of another factory.

The National Cleaner Production Centre South Africa (NCPC-SA) in collaboration with DESTEA will be launching the Free State Industrial Symbiosis Programme (Free State-ISP) event.

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) is a resource-efficient approach, where unused or residual resources (material, energy, water, waste, assets, and logistics) of one company are used by another. It uses a unique facilitation approach to rapidly match member companies' underutilized resources with those who can utilize them. The programme actively supports its members to realise business opportunities or "synergies". This process will greatly reduce waste that end up in our landfill sites.

The launch will benefit the target audience in better understanding the IS concept and increase profits and business sales thus increasing business and job opportunities. The shared transfer of knowledge and innovation will be the objective of day.