Industrial symbiosis is the use by one company or sector of waste resources broadly defined—including waste, by-products, residues, energy, water, logistics, capacity, expertise, equipment and materials—from another.  Examples of industrial symbiosis include Kalundborg, Denmark's eco-industrial park, a National Industrial Symbiosis Program (NISP) pilot project in the Vancouver and Edmonton areas in Canada, the original NISP in the United Kingdom, and various adaptations of the NISP model deployed in more than 30 countries globally.

In the 2019-21 biennial operating budget, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) was directed to produce a proposal and recommendations for setting up an industrial waste coordination program by December 1, 2019.  The report presents six key recommendations for a proposed Washington program:

• invest in facilitated industrial symbiosis;
• invest in industrial symbiosis research, development, and deployment;
• develop a supportive policy framework;
• continue to support clean energy;
• maximize industrial symbiosis opportunities involving utilities and infrastructure; and
• coordinate and strategically manage materials flow data.

An industrial waste coordination program is established to provide expertise, technical assistance, and best practices to support local industrial symbiosis projects.  The program is to be administered regionally by Commerce, with each region providing a dedicated facilitator, and technical and administrative support.  The program must facilitate waste exchange by:

• developing inventories of industrial waste innovation currently in operation;
• generating a material flow data collection system to capture and manage data on resource availability and potential synergies;
• establishing guidance and best practices for emerging local industrial resource hubs, which must include a consideration of steps to avoid creating or worsening negative impacts to overburdened communities as identified by tools such as the Department of Health's environmental health disparities map;
• identifying access to capital to fund projects, including federal, state, local, and private funding;
• developing economic, environmental, and health disparities metrics to measure the results of industrial or commercial hubs;
• hosting workshops and connecting regional businesses, governments, utilities, and research institutions to identify opportunities for resource collaboration;
• assisting entities throughout the entire life cycle of industrial symbiosis projects, from identification of opportunities to full project implementation; and
• developing economic cluster initiatives to spur growth and innovation.

No entity is required to disclose material flow data.  When generating the material flow data collection system, Commerce may only use publicly available data or data voluntarily provided by program participants.  Commerce must keep any proprietary business information confidential and such information is exempt from public disclosure.

Subject to appropriation, a competitive industrial symbiosis grant program is established to provide grants for the research, development, and deployment of local waste coordination projects.  Grants may go towards several project types, including:

• existing industrial symbiosis efforts by public or private sector organizations;
• emerging industrial symbiosis opportunities involving public or private sector organizations, including projects arising from:

1. 1. the industrial waste coordination program;
   2. conceptual work completed by public utilities to redirect their wastes to productive use; or
   3. existing inventories or project concepts involving specific biobased wastes converted to renewable natural gas;

• research on product development using a specific waste flow;
• feasibility studies to evaluate potential biobased resources; and
• feasibility studies for publicly owned utilities to evaluate business models to transform to multiutility operations or for the evaluation of potential symbiosis connections with other regional businesses.

Commerce must develop a method and criteria for allocating grants, subject to the following:

• project allocation should reflect geographic diversity, with grants being distributed equally in western and eastern parts of the state, urban and rural areas, and small towns and large cities;
• project allocation should consider factors such as time to implementation and scale of economic or environmental benefits;
• grants must require a one-to-one, nonstate to state match;
• project allocation should avoid creating or worsening environmental health disparities, and should make use of tools such as the Department of Health's environmental health disparities map; and
• individual grant awards may not exceed $500,000.