Re-constructing Kalundborg: the reality of bilateral symbiosis and other insights

A collection of commercial arrangements between various organisations at Kalundborg in Denmark is the archetypical example of an eco-industrial system. Features of industrial symbiosis derived from the example include close geographic proximity among organisations in a system and a 'short mental distance' between managers. On the basis of a temporal re-construction and detailed analysis of these arrangements, it is concluded that neither feature is necessarily a prerequisite for successful industrial symbiosis. Bilateral symbiosis is found to be the fundamental transaction with regard to physical transfers of materials and energy. The findings also provide insights on what constitutes waste, the notion of commercial viability and the dichotomy between physical and social symbiosis.