Analytical network process approach for the establishment of industrial symbiosis network

Increasing environmental pollution and depletion of natural resources force industrial firms to find solutions to decrease the negative environmental impact of their processes and production costs simultaneously. Industrial symbiosis, being concerned with the collaboration of industrial firms for effective management of resources such that waste of one firm becomes the input of another one, is a very useful and an effective tool to achieve this goal. Although the industrial symbiosis has a great potential to contribute to a much more sustainable development of the industrial operations, there is a lack of systematic criteria to develop and implement a successful industrial symbiosis network and mechanism. This study aims to propose the aforementioned criteria and their relative importance to support decision makers who want to establish an industrial symbiosis network. Analytic Network Process is to be used to determine the significant criteria and their weights. Then, by means of Analytic Network Process methods, a general framework of important criteria to establish an industrial symbiosis network is proposed to aid the decision makers.