Symbiosis in industry. Basic problems of eco-industrial parks

The main goal of sustainable development is to make the whole anthroposphere friendly to the ecosphere and to lead to full cooperation between them. This type of activities undertakes industrial ecology. One of the fields of industrial ecology interest is a cooperation of enterprises with the aim of decreasing of the anthropogenic pressure on the environment. The way to do that is to set up a sort of ecosystems from the man made elements. Symbiotic connections between them are the first steps on this way. Symbiosis in its common sense is a co-action between two organisms - subjects in broadened meaning - with their mutual benefit. The same occurrence may take place in the industrial sphere. Consequently one can recognize an industrial unit as an ecosystem. Building such ecosystems within industrial subjects is not an easy task because of a variety of interacting elements. While building sucha system several aspects of activity of production and service units must be taken into account managing, technical, operational, psychological, landscaping, social, law and other problems. Basically there are two patterns of originating symbiotic connections: a spontaneous process between enterprises and a process stimulated by an external initiator e.g. local authority, business association. Developing industrial symbiosis is subjected to severa} conditions. One of them is a distance between particular subjects. Situation when production units are placed in proximity is the most conducive. So that, the most suitable place for an evolvement of the idea of industrial symbiosis appears to be an industrial park (IP). IP is a well-defined area where several enterprises act under particular regulations. In generał there are two situations when IP is considered: an already existing park and a park in the course of an establishing. In the first case the IP is often placed on premises of an bankrupted enterprise. In the second one the proprietor breaks up the land into lots, and encourages potentia! investors. In both cases creation of symbiotic connections encounters manifold problems. The fundamental one is how to introduce symbiosis into an industrial park. An IP with a developed symbiotic network can be recognized as an eco-industrial park (EIP). When planning EIP it is necessary to take into account a set of factors that one can classify as juridical, technical, economical, environmental, social, organizational etc. Synergy in the whole operational sphere is the most important advantage of the undertaking. Enterprises voluntarily joint to establish symbiotic relationships, constitute a kind of eco-overlap in an industrial park but still it could be recognized as an EIP. Symbiotic network within an IP increases a complexity of the system, which is perceived by participants as a difficulty. Confidence may alleviate the inconvenience. Beside of that there are several obstacles to symbiotic connections development. Superficial understanding of sustainability constitutes a real barrier to symbiosis