The Forssa Eco-Industrial Park, Finland is focused on ‘bio-economy’ fused with expertise in recycling. This includes the optimisation of large modern greenhouses and the production of green covers (sod turf), growth media and bio-fertilisers. Applying a closed loop cycle, materials and energy are linked to other industries in the eco-industrial park including biogas and biodiesel production for use as transport fuel, in utilisation of carbon dioxide separated from biogas, and in industrial aquaculture using bio-energy and the innovative utilisation of the by-products from the food industry.  At the core of the park is a comprehensive bio-refinery that diversely utilises different by-products of the food industry.

The Eco-Park is closely linked to the Forssa Envitech, which is a leading Finnish centre in glass recycling and is a significant national centre in the handling of electric and electronic scrap, contaminated soil and biowaste.

Rantasalmi, in mid-Finland is the site of Finland’s first wood materials industrial park, with waste wood powering the electricity plant, and its excess heat warming the cluster of on site wood businesses.

These include Finland’s fourth largest log house manufacturer, carpenters, a transport company and a window and door frame factory, which by operating side-by-side, provide their waste wood and sawdust to the plant. For a description see this pdf

Businesses at Rantasalmi aim to increase their collaboration over time, improving material and energy efficiency, reducing waste and limiting emissions. All businesses have agreed to and signed a common environmental policy.

The Monterey Regional Waste Management District Regional Environmental Park is both considered an Eco-Industrial Park and described as a prime example of a Resource Recovery Park. In 1991 it was recognised as the ‘best integrated waste management system’ in North America.

What might look to some like a mega recycling dump, has been carefully designed to optimise the waste which arrives by the hour, split into different groups such as the public drop-off recycling station and Last Chance Mercantile resale facility. Around 60% of the materials turned in to the Park’s Household Hazardous Waste collections, are reused by the community through a “drop and swap” programme, significantly reducing disposal costs.

A Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) processing more than 100,000 tonnes of community waste that arrives annually, with a 75% target for recycling and reuse. Significant amounts end up in the award winning Last Chance Mercantile, which then are sold back to the community.  Construction and demolition materials are sorted as is waste wood. There’s also a wide range of green products composting and soil blending facilities.

Monterey was one of the earliest adopters of landfill gas to electric energy in the States, with 5 megawatts of electricity generated annually. Two years ago a compost pilot demonstration project using SmartFerm anaerobic system is processing 5,000 tons of organic material per year.

If this isn’t the usual form that Eco-Industrial Parks are envisaged, it graphically shows the overlap between organising recycling waste and their more effective reuse.

The ReVenture Park  is in the early stages of developing the largest US eco-Industrial Park of its type. Situated on a 700 acre site, ReVenture’s core plan is organised around a large renewable energy complex. Facilities for waste-to-energy power plant, wastewater treatment, solar energy fields, clean tech start-ups and R&D hub are to be developed inside and around an old textile dye factory – with half a million square feet of industrial space. Publicity states that a significant campus and educational aspect to the eco-development is part of the plan, with more than 1,100 “green collar” jobs being created.

Old already in place railway tracks, multiple electricity substations, transmission lines and a 360 million gallon containment pond add to the in-situ infrastructure for ReVenture. A portion of the extensive site is reserved for natural wildlife habitats.

At the Hong Kong Eco Park  a number of recycling firms co-exist side-by-side on a 20 hectares plot. The companies recycle a variety of waste materials such as cooking oils, wood, metals, electronics, plastics and batteries.

The Eco-Park is part eco-industrial centre and part recycling centre, with waste only being used for waste-conversion feedstocks and inputs for manufacturing. The varying companies don’t, however, involve exchanges of material or energy, but do share various other human and infrastructure resources to draw down environmental impacts. A brochure can be downloaded here

Intervale Eco-Industrial Park is an agricultural and farming focused Eco-Industrial Park. Waste Heat from a Biomass Plant warms greenhouses for a mixture of local farms, and a community garden. Food waste from Burlington city is mixed with wastewater from the local Ben & Jerry’s ice cream plant (yes, Burlington is the home to Ben & Jerry’s!) which mulches into fertiliser, which is then used by both the Intervale and other farmers.

Intervale is a demonstration site for the first Living Machine, invented by biologist John Todd, as a natural water purifier. The water is treated using plants, cleaning a specific waste stream, using diverse communities of bacteria and other micro-organisms, algae, plants, trees, snails. The Living Machine is a good example of ecological engineering.

Intervale is also a core part of the community food system. According to Greener Ideal magazine: (article here)

“by integrating food production, processing, distribution and consumption, the park seeks to enhance the surrounding community’s social and economic well being while stewarding the environment and improving nutritional health.”

Intervale Eco Park Research paper by John Todd here

Kalundenborg in Denmark, is one of the best-known (and one of the oldest) examples of an industrial ecology in action. Different companies at Kalundenberg use each others waste.

For instance Kalundborg’s power plant produces various materials and energy flows; gypsum which then is used to produce plasterboard, and steam, which warms fish farming ponds. In turn sludge from the fish-ponds and factories fertilise local farms.