Building resilient industries: Applying industrial symbiosis to support wood recycling in Cape Town, South Africa

The document explores the use of industrial symbiosis to divert wood waste from landfills and reduce reliance on virgin timber in Cape Town. It details how the Western Cape Industrial Symbiosis Programme (WISP) matches businesses to exchange under-utilised resources, such as using sawdust for brick manufacturing or refurbishing old pallets. These circular economy practices are presented as a means to build resilience against resource depletion and climate change while creating jobs and reducing the carbon footprint of local industries.

• Industrial symbiosis is used in Cape Town to improve resource efficiency by matching businesses that produce under-utilised resources, such as waste and by-products, with those that can use them as resources.
• The wood production sector in South Africa faces risks from shrinking plantation areas due to planned decommissioning and unplanned disruptions like fires and natural disasters, which threatens the entire supply chain.
• Diverting wood waste from landfills is a priority for the City of Cape Town because landfills are running out of space, and avoiding new construction is costly.
• Waste biomass and wood resources serve as a critical alternative to coal for Western Cape businesses, reducing the high logistical costs associated with importing coal from the north of the country.
• Specific industrial symbiosis applications include the use of sawdust by clay brick manufacturers to create lighter, more porous bricks with better insulation, and the refurbishment of broken pallets into new pallets or furniture.
• Waste-to-energy initiatives are utilised to remove alien invasive plants from the environment, which otherwise threaten biodiversity and consume excessive water compared to indigenous plants.
• Treated wood remains a challenging waste stream due to glues and chemicals that pose health and environmental risks during combustion, though the document notes that future technology or more eco-friendly chemicals may resolve this.

APA

GreenCape (2019). Building resilient industries: Applying industrial symbiosis to support wood recycling in Cape Town, South Africa. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Wood_GreenCape_Resilience-Report_Interactive_20190802-3.pdf

Chicago

GreenCape. Building resilient industries: Applying industrial symbiosis to support wood recycling in Cape Town, South Africa. 2019. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Wood_GreenCape_Resilience-Report_Interactive_20190802-3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=GreenCape |title=Building resilient industries: Applying industrial symbiosis to support wood recycling in Cape Town, South Africa |date=2019 |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Wood_GreenCape_Resilience-Report_Interactive_20190802-3.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greencape2019building, author = {{GreenCape}}, title = {{Building resilient industries: Applying industrial symbiosis to support wood recycling in Cape Town, South Africa}}, institution = {GreenCape}, year = {2019}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Wood_GreenCape_Resilience-Report_Interactive_20190802-3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }