Industrial symbiosis potential in Uganda's Kampala Industrial and Business Park. Sustainability challenges and opportunities

• Industrial symbiosis enables CE experiments for sustainable growth in Uganda. • KIBP’s weak infrastructure implies need for centralized waste exchange systems. • Strong regulations and incentives are key to long-term IS at KIBP. • Business–government–community collaboration builds sustainable economic value. • Tax incentives, grants, and green infrastructure improve KIBP’s economic viability. Sustainable industrialization has become a priority for many African nations, yet practical pathways for achieving it, particularly through circular economy (CE) strategies, remain insufficiently understood. Although industrial symbiosis (IS) is widely recognized as a promising CE approach for enhancing resource efficiency and reducing environmental burdens, limited empirical evidence exists on how these principles can be implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa, where industrial systems are still formative and characterized by infrastructural and regulatory constraints. This gap is especially pronounced in rapidly developing industrial parks such as the Kampala Industrial and Business Park (KIBP) in Uganda. Therefore, this study examines the potential and challenges of integrating CE principles, specifically IS, within KIBP, aiming to contextualize and adapt CE/IS frameworks to an early-stage industrial ecosystem. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 42 firms and consultations with park management, the research analyses existing waste and resource flows, perceptions of CE/IS, and factors shaping adoption. The paper contributes by extending CE and IS theory to the Sub-Saharan context and providing practical entry points for policymakers, industrial park managers, and businesses. Findings reveal that IS holds significant potential to optimize waste management, enable waste valorisation, enhance resource efficiency, and reduce environmental impacts within the park. However, implementation is hindered by weak infrastructure, limited awareness among firms, and insufficient policy enforcement. Key opportunities for enabling IS include establishing centralized waste collection and sorting facilities, fostering collaborative waste-exchange networks including informal actors, promoting technological innovation, and introducing incentive-based regulatory mechanisms.