The aim of our research is to gain understanding about material flow related information sharing in the circular economy value network in the form of industrial symbiosis. We need this understanding for facilitating new industrial symbiosis relationships and to support the optimization of operations. Circular economy has been promoted by politics and regulation by EU. In Finland, new circular economy strategy raises the facilitation of industrial symbiosis and data utilization as the key actions to improve sustainability and green growth. Companies stated that the practical problem is to get information on material availability. Digitalization is expected to boost material flows in circular economy by data, but what are the real challenges with circular material flows and what is the willingness of companies to develop co-operation? This paper seeks understanding on how Industry 4.0 is expected to improve the efficiency of waste or by-product flows and what are the expectations of companies. The research question is: How Industry 4.0 technologies and solutions can fix the gaps and discontinuities in the Industrial Symbiosis information flow? This research is conducted as a qualitative case study research with three cases, three types of material and eight companies. Interview data were collected in Finland between January and March 2021. Companies we interviewed mentioned use-cases for sensors and analytics to optimize the material flow but stated the investment cost compared to the value of information. To achieve sustainable circular material flows, the development needs to be done in the bigger picture, for the chain or network of actors, and the motivation and the added value must be found for each of them.

One of the biggest problems for sand casting foundries must be the waste produced from disposable molds. Stricter environmental regulations make it harder to dispose of waste sand, so a truly competitive foundry does no longer only make great products, but also concentrates on a sustainable casting process. While methods for repurposing waste foundry sand are still limited, the internal circulation of such sands proves significant possibilities. This paper will focus on thermal reclamation of foundry sands in a special rotating drum furnace in a central facility to serve several foundries. Thermal reclamation is a process for handling foundry sands in elevated temperatures to combust unwanted substances from reusable base sand. The introduction focuses on background of the Finnish foundry business, the most common sand systems in Finland and their reclaim properties. The experimental part features presentation of the new reclamation plant process and the conducted test runs. The samples collected from each test run have been laboratory tested to assure proper sand quality. The results of this work showed that the reclamation of alkaline phenolic no-bake sands was excellent. Reclamation of green sands did not provide satisfactory results as expected and the reclamation of furan no-bake sands provided mixed results, as the raw material was imperfect to begin with. The most important result of this work is still the successful initiation of a centralized thermal reclamation plant, with the ability to reclaim sands of several foundries. With this all of industrial symbiosis, circular economy and sustainability advanced in Finland, and the future development of this plant provides even further opportunities and a possibility to spread the ideas on a global scale.

The cement industry has been using waste as a raw material for many years. Waste is also used as alternative fuel. Cement plants are an important element of the waste management system and fit the idea of a circular economy. When waste is recovered in the cement production process, direct and indirect CO ₂ emissions are partially avoided. This article discusses the cement industry in Poland. The current situation in terms of the use of alternative fuels and raw materials in Poland, the different types of waste and the amount of waste used is discussed. The article discusses changes in the amount of waste (the increase in the amount of waste used as raw materials from the year 2006 to the year 2019) and the types of waste recovered in the cement production process and the possibility of closing material cycles on the plant scale (recycling to the primary process – cement kiln dust) and industry (using waste from other industries: metallurgy – granulated blast furnace slag, iron bearings; energy production – fly ash, reagypsum/phosphogypsum, fluidized bed combustion fly ash, and fluidized bed combustion bottom ash; wastewater treatment plants – sewage sludge, etc.). The analysis shows that the role of cement plants in waste management and the circular economy in Poland is important. Industrial waste from metallurgy, power plants, heat and power plants, wastewater treatment plants, and municipal waste is used as the raw material for the cement industry, leading to an industrial symbiosis.