Eco-Industrial Parks: Experiences from Turkey

Eco-Industrial Parks (EIPs) contribute to environmental and social sustainability as well as economically sound industrial development. The idea of EIPs was fi rst described at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro 1992 [1] and has become popular in many countries in the last two decades. Since eco-industrial parks encourage resource effi ciency and circular economy practices, it is a promising strategy to support sustainable industrial development and to improve the industries’ environmental performance in terms of materials, energy and waste. Therefore, number of the EIPs has recently spread worldwide both in developed and developing countries.


Introduction
Eco-Industrial Parks (EIPs) contribute to environmental and social sustainability as well as economically sound industrial development. The idea of EIPs was fi rst described at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro 1992 [1] and has become popular in many countries in the last two decades.
Since eco-industrial parks encourage resource effi ciency and circular economy practices, it is a promising strategy to support sustainable industrial development and to improve the industries' environmental performance in terms of materials, energy and waste. Therefore, number of the EIPs has recently spread worldwide both in developed and developing countries.

One of the most famous examples of Industrial Symbiosis
(IS) is the Kalundborg industrial cluster in Denmark and it has often been used as a reference case in literature. The Kalundborg network arose spontaneously from a self-organizing initiative between companies to address water scarcity and over the years has increased not only in terms of the number of symbioses but also the number of participants and remains a successful case to this day [2]

Development of Eco-industrial parks in turkey
Turkey has been encouraging industries with the green growth perspective and has supported this strategy via several national and international projects. In order to ensure the effi cient use of resources, various projects have been implemented since 2010. The list of the projects performed in OIZs is summarized in Table 1. As can be seen from the Table   1, the IS applications in Turkey started with Iskenderun Bay Project (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Project) in 2010. The project was fi nanced by BTC Crude Oil Pipeline Company and implemented by the Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV). The objective of the project was to introduce IS approach into the area of Iskenderun Bay as a mechanism to increase the collaboration and solidarity between companies for the purpose of achieving both environmental and economical improvement in the region, as well as creating a background for a national program. As a result of analyses and follow-up studies, around 420 potential synergies were identifi ed within the IS network of 51 member companies from 28 sectors. As shown in the following table, particularly waste reductions, water and energy savings, and decreases in CO 2 emissions, etc.
were listed among the major benefi ts of the project.
Using the experiences especially gained from this project, many others have been put into practice across the country in the last decade. These projects were generally performed in the existing industrial parks by the regional development agencies such as IZKA, TRAKYAKA, BEBKA and The Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology (MoSIT). The feasibility studies were also prepared to reveal IS potential in their region.
For example, as part of IS program conducted by BEBKA in cooperation with TTGV, synergy workshops were performed; and potential synergies between the food, mineral products, furniture, textile and mining industries were exposed.
Trakya Industrial Symbiosis Program was initiated at 2014 by TRAKYAKA in cooperation with TTGV. The analysis of the structure of industrial sectors in the region (i.e. Edirne, Kırklareli, Tekirdağ provinces) was carried out and then IS opportunities were identifi ed. Biogas and electricity production from organic wastes; reusing slag and ashes in cement, concrete and road construction; recycling of casting wastes; and recycling of metal and plastic wastes in household appliances were proposed as potential synergies in the Trakya Industrial Symbiosis Program. In order to ensure the effi cient use of resources by industrial/non-industrial companies located in Antalya Organized Industrial Zone (Antalya OIZ) and to protect the sustainability of regional development, the project titled as "The Industrial Symbiosis and Eco-effi ciency" was launched in 2015. The project was carried out jointly by Directorate of Antalya OIZ and TTGV. It was aimed to decrease resource consumption and to apply more productive and eco-friendly production and service processes through preventing the wastes in their sources or reducing them. The IS opportunities among various sectors in Gaziantep OIZ were also explored in Gaziantep project. In this context, 2012 companies from 166 different sectors were analyzed to identify the IS opportunities. An industrial symbiosis match-making platform was used to screen the opportunities. The results covered a range of benefi ts, such as energy and material recovery/reuse, waste recycling/reuse, which all addressed to considerable reduction in GHG emissions in a regional industrial zone. Additionally, the MoSIT of Turkey, with the assistance of the World Bank Group (WBG), initiated a project, Green OIZ Framework Development for Turkey, to set "minimum requirements" or "sustainability performance standards" for industrial parks [4]. The environmental, economic, social criteria were proposed in the project as well as the indicators for OIZ management. On this context, the comprehensive technical, fi nancial and regulatory analyses were carried out to identify the most viable opportunities in resource effi ciency, green infrastructures (renewable energy, waste water treatment/ recycling, etc.) and circularity (e.g. industrial symbiosis). As it mentioned before, regional development agencies have played Table 1: The list of the projects on eco-parks and/or industrial symbiosis in Turkey.

Project Title Project Partners Major Outputs
Iskenderun Bay Industrial Symbiosis  which have to be provided to tenants and/or OIZ Directorate are another important factor to stimulate the green transition of the industries in the implementation of the projects.