Rural Symbiosis Study Visit in Sweden: Exploring Industrial Symbiosis in Practice

The Rural Symbiosis project has officially started, bringing together partners and stakeholders to explore how agricultural and forestry by-products can be used more effectively and turned into new opportunities for rural businesses and regions. 

The first Rural Symbiosis study visit took place in Sweden, offering a chance to learn from local examples of industrial symbiosis. The visits demonstrated how businesses, municipalities, research institutions and other regional actors can work together to make better use of underutilised materials and develop more circular approaches to resource use. 

The first stop on the study visit was at Open Wood, which supports the green transition of the wood, furniture and interior sectors through expertise, networks and collaboration. The visit introduced the process of developing industrial symbiosis and examples of how Bengtsfors Municipality has worked with businesses to address regional challenges. By connecting forest resources with businesses, designers and educational institutions, this approach can help identify new uses for wood industry side streams and create opportunities for innovation. The example also demonstrated the importance of local leadership and trusted facilitators in bringing different actors together and maintaining cooperation. 

The study visit continued at Karlstads Energi, a municipally owned company providing energy, heating and waste management services in Karlstad. Its work illustrates how circular solutions can be integrated into municipal services, with resource recovery and efficient resource use forming part of a broader approach to sustainability. The visit highlighted the role of long-term planning, practical infrastructure and public communication in making circular practices part of everyday life. It also illustrated that opportunities for resource recovery can be found in smaller material streams, not only in large industrial processes. 

The next stop was Circlab in Torsby, where the focus shifted from municipal services to manufacturing and additive production. Circlab supports companies in developing, designing and testing 3D-printed products, including prototypes. During the visit, the project partners learned about practical industrial symbiosis examples and toured the 3D printing facility. The examples explored how waste materials and bio-based side streams can offer potential raw materials for new products, prototypes and components. They also demonstrated the role of technical expertise, experimentation and cooperation in developing circular solutions that could be applied in practice. 

The study visit also included Karlstad University, where research and innovation play an important role in exploring more sustainable ways to use forest-based resources. The university works with industry and public-sector partners to investigate resource flows and develop and test solutions that support circularity. The visit highlighted how research, environmental assessment and collaboration across different sectors can help identify connections between underused resources and potential applications. Such work can provide a basis for developing new bio-based products and finding ways to make better use of regional forest resources. 

Together, the examples showed that industrial symbiosis can take different forms depending on the regional context. It can involve connecting businesses around wood-based resources, incorporating resource recovery into municipal services, exploring waste materials in manufacturing or using research to identify new applications for forest-based resources. Across these different settings, cooperation between businesses, municipalities and research institutions plays an important role in identifying opportunities and developing practical solutions. 

The insights from the first Rural Symbiosis Study Visit will contribute to the project’s next steps, including the development of the Rural Symbiosis Toolbox and regional roadmaps. By drawing on practical examples and strengthening cooperation between regional actors, the project aims to help rural areas identify ways to make better use of underutilised resources and develop practical circular business opportunities. 

Rural Symbiosis is co-funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). 

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