symbiosis

This is one of those words which is so significant that I wish to include it in this glossary.

Symbiosis is where two or more people/groups.organisations/ecosystems form a connection that is beneficial to both.

An example from a couple of decades ago would be when the steel manufacturing industry and the wastewater (what used to be called sewage - and still is, in some places - and this is from a part of the world where we have been intelligent enough to keep stormwater separate from wastewater, unlike others) treatment industry realised that a waste product from the steel manufacturing process (what is termed pickling liquor - which, contrary to the US-biased link from Wikipedia, is NOT always only suitable for disposal to landfill) could be used to remove phosphorus from wastewater, to help prevent algal blooms in inland waterways.

Most examples are biological in nature, for instance, plants generate oxygen which animals need, use, and convert to carbon dioxide that plants then use to - and the cycle goes on. Other biological examples can be found at the Wikipedia definition.

The on line Oxford Dictionary definition for this word is here.