The National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC) celebrated a five-year partnership programme with the Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET) through the Limpopo Industrial Symbiosis Programme (LIM-ISP). As part of the celebrations, the LEDET awarded selected green enterprises R70,000 each for equipment, encouraging continued innovation in circular and sustainable business practices.

Since launching its industrial symbiosis programme in Limpopo, the NCPC has steadily expanded the footprint of the LIM-ISP across the province, introducing more than 700 small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) to the benefits of industrial symbiosis. Over this period, the programme has run seven capacity-building workshops, trained 50 expert ISP facilitators, and equipped over 100 industry participants and SMMEs with the skills needed to identify and implement resource exchanges.

The NCPC’s National Programme Manager, Victor Manavhela, said the programme’s progress demonstrates how effective collaboration and strong local ownership can drive cleaner, more resilient industries. “We aim to strengthen and up-scale more SMMEs through practical support mechanisms,” he noted.

Business opportunity workshops held across all five of Limpopo’s district municipalities have led to approximately 1,800 synergies, a term for the successful exchange of unused or waste resources from an organisation to an offtaker who can use them instead of disposing of them in a landfill. In so doing, the LIM-ISP has contributed to diverting 67,789 tonnes of waste from landfill and reducing 236,109 tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Participating companies in the LIM-ISP continue to benefit from reduced GHG emissions, lower landfill costs, decreased use of virgin resources, reduced water consumption, and less hazardous waste and pollution. Many also report increased sales and profits, improved competitiveness, access to new markets, and job creation. “We intend to stimulate eco-innovations and new applications for residual resources that will lead to the development of new economies and technologies for waste management,” added Manavhela. Looking ahead, he emphasised that the next five years will focus on amplifying impact. “LIM-ISP will accelerate its impact to grow the green and waste economy.”

Launched in 2019, LIM-ISP forms part of the NCPC’s wider Industrial Symbiosis (IS) Programme, with provincially focused programmes operating in Gauteng (which recently marked ten years of operation), the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, the Free State, the North West, and the Northern Cape. The free facilitation service continues to match one company’s waste with another’s resource needs, supporting industry in diverting waste from landfills and strengthening the green economy.

For more information about the NCPC and the IS Programme, visit the NCPC website or email ncpc@csir.co.za.