275
© The Author(s) 2016
R. Clift, A. Druckman (eds.), Taking Stock of Industrial Ecology,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-20571-7_14
Chapter 14
Industrial Ecology and Portugal’s National
Waste Plans
Paulo Ferrão , António Lorena , and Paulo Ribeiro
Abstract This chapter explores how industrial ecology concepts and tools were
used to support the design of waste management systems and policies in Portugal.
The focus is on a set of case studies that illustrate the results of a successful cooperation between government, private institutions, and academia to transform waste
into a useful resource for socio-economic development.
The “Relvão Eco Industrial Park”, an industrial symbiosis case study, is analyzed, showing that it was possible to build from scratch a large number of synergies
between companies, creating over 300 local jobs and attracting an investment of
over €19 million to a region which was industrially undeveloped.
The partnership between the Portuguese Environment Agency and IST to develop
the National Waste Management Plan enabled design of a policy instrument that
explicitly identifi ed the need for a life-cycle approach to underpin waste management policies and that supported a circular economy to contribute to increasing
resource effi ciency.
The recent national strategy for urban waste management (PERSU 2020), developed in 2014, is the latest case study of cooperation between academia and the
government to develop a public policy whose results show that the proposed changes
will lead to a major qualitative leap in the environmental and economic performance
of the sector by 2020. It is estimated that the net GHG emissions will be reduced by
47 %, as demonstrated by an LCA study promoted to support policy development.
These benefi ts are due not only to reduction of the quantity sent to landfi ll, especially the biodegradable fractions, but also to the expected increase in MSW recycling resulting from the increase of selective collection and more effi cient treatment
and recovery of mixed wastes. An hybrid input-output model, i.e. with both monetary and mass fl ows, that explicitly considers seven types of waste, showed that the
new policy will allow for increasing the economic added value of the urban waste
management system by 26 % to €451million and that the number of direct and indirect jobs will increase to 13,000 and 5,500, respectively.
P. Ferrão (*)
IST – Instituto Superior Técnico , University of Lisbon , Lisbon , Portugal
e-mail: ferrao@tecnico.ulisboa.pt
A. Lorena • P. Ribeiro
3 Drivers, Engineering, Innovation and Environment , Lisbon , Portugal
© The Author(s) 2016
R. Clift, A. Druckman (eds.), Taking Stock of Industrial Ecology,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-20571-7_14
Chapter 14
Industrial Ecology and Portugal’s National
Waste Plans
Paulo Ferrão , António Lorena , and Paulo Ribeiro
Abstract This chapter explores how industrial ecology concepts and tools were
used to support the design of waste management systems and policies in Portugal.
The focus is on a set of case studies that illustrate the results of a successful cooperation between government, private institutions, and academia to transform waste
into a useful resource for socio-economic development.
The “Relvão Eco Industrial Park”, an industrial symbiosis case study, is analyzed, showing that it was possible to build from scratch a large number of synergies
between companies, creating over 300 local jobs and attracting an investment of
over €19 million to a region which was industrially undeveloped.
The partnership between the Portuguese Environment Agency and IST to develop
the National Waste Management Plan enabled design of a policy instrument that
explicitly identifi ed the need for a life-cycle approach to underpin waste management policies and that supported a circular economy to contribute to increasing
resource effi ciency.
The recent national strategy for urban waste management (PERSU 2020), developed in 2014, is the latest case study of cooperation between academia and the
government to develop a public policy whose results show that the proposed changes
will lead to a major qualitative leap in the environmental and economic performance
of the sector by 2020. It is estimated that the net GHG emissions will be reduced by
47 %, as demonstrated by an LCA study promoted to support policy development.
These benefi ts are due not only to reduction of the quantity sent to landfi ll, especially the biodegradable fractions, but also to the expected increase in MSW recycling resulting from the increase of selective collection and more effi cient treatment
and recovery of mixed wastes. An hybrid input-output model, i.e. with both monetary and mass fl ows, that explicitly considers seven types of waste, showed that the
new policy will allow for increasing the economic added value of the urban waste
management system by 26 % to €451million and that the number of direct and indirect jobs will increase to 13,000 and 5,500, respectively.
P. Ferrão (*)
IST – Instituto Superior Técnico , University of Lisbon , Lisbon , Portugal
e-mail: ferrao@tecnico.ulisboa.pt
A. Lorena • P. Ribeiro
3 Drivers, Engineering, Innovation and Environment , Lisbon , Portugal