European policymaking is increasingly underlining the potential of industrial symbiosis (IS) in fostering industry competitiveness and circularity in Europe. The European Green Deal attempts to establish IS as a business-as-usual approach in the European industries. While regional and local steps are already being taken to make companies and SMEs contribute to advancing local growth and competitiveness, European policy integrates IS in continued revisions of legislations covering the whole value chain.

In fostering the uptake of IS further, it is essential to overcome barriers such as non-harmonised regulatory framework at EU level, limited awareness and knowledge about the potential of IS, low focus on skills and capacity building, the lack of standardisation etc. There is a large demand from stakeholders of good practices, peer-reviews and local facilitators, including exchange platforms that can provide matching services as well as identifying opportunities for establishing more synergies.

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CircLean is a network of businesses and SMEs engaged in Industrial Symbiosis.