Industrial Ecology: Concepts and Approaches L
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Proc. Nati. Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 89, pp. 793-797, February 1992 Colloquium Paper This paper serves as an introduction to the following papers, which were presented at a colloquium entitled "Industrial Ecology, " organized by C. Kumar N. Patel, held May 20 and 21, 1991, at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC. Industrial ecology: Concepts and approaches L. W. JELINSKI*, T. E. GRAEDEL, R. A. LAUDISE, D. W. MCCALL, AND C. K. N. PATEL AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ 07974 ABSTRACT Industrial ecology is a new approach to the and gases, and produce wastes of their own. These industrial design of products and processes and the implemen- wastes are in turn food for other organisms, some of tation of sustainable manufacturing strategies. It is a concept which may convert the wastes into the minerals used in which an industrial system is viewed not in isolation from its by the primary producers, and some ofwhich consume surrounding systems but in concert with them. Industrial each other in a complex network of processes in which ecology seeks to optimize the total materials cycle from virgn everything produced is used by some organism for its material to finished material, to component, to product, to own metabolism. Similarly, in the industrial ecosys- waste product, and to ultimate disposal. To better characterize tem, each process and network of processes must be the topic, the National Academy of Sciences convened a collo- viewed as a dependent and interrelated part of a larger quium from which were derived a number of salient contribu- whole. The analogy between the industrial ecosystem tions. This paper sets the stage for the contributions that follow concept and the biological ecosystem is not perfect, but and discusses how each fits into the framework of industrial much could be gained if the industrial system were to ecology. mimic the best features of the biological analogue. It is instructive to think of the materials cycles involved It is not difficult to find evidence that human activities are with the earliest of earth's life forms. At that time, the beginning to overrun the resources of the planet. The ex- potentially usable resources were so large and the amount of haustion of the oil that has fueled the industrial revolution life so small that the existence oflife forms had essentially no appears to be less than a century away, waste disposal sites impact on available resources. This individual component are in increasingly short supply, the atmosphere over Ant- process might be described as linear-that is, as one in which arctica is being radically changed as a consequence of indus- the flow of material from one stage to the next is independent trially synthesized halogenated gases, and so forth. In many of all other flows. We term this pattern type I ecology; of these cases, the industrial processes that have benefited schematically, it takes the form of Fig. 1. society are also among the sources ofthe problems. It is clear A contrasting picture is an ecosystem in which proximal that "business as usual" is not an option that industry can resources are limited. In such a system, the resulting life maintain for long. Nonetheless, the complexities involved in forms become strongly interlinked and form the complex new approaches to industrial design and operation are many, networks we know today as biological communities. In this and individuals who are adequately equipped to make deci- system, the flows ofmaterial within the proximal domain may sions with the full spectrum ofthose complexities in mind are be quite large, but the flows into and out ofthat domain (i.e., few. from resources and to waste) are quite small. Schematically, Recognizing that new approaches are required for the such a type II system might be expressed as in Fig. 2. industrial design of products and processes and the imple- The type II system is much more efficient than the previous mentation of sustainable manufacturing strategies, the Na- one, but it clearly is not sustainable over the long term tional Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with the AT&T because the flows are all in one direction, that is, the system Foundation, sponsored a colloquium in Washington, DC, on is "running down." To be ultimately sustainable, biological May 20-21, 1991. In this communication, we wish to frame ecosystems have evolved over the long term to be almost the concept on which that discussion was based and to completely cyclical in nature, with "resources" and "waste" describe how the papers that follow fit into that overall being undefined, since waste to one component ofthe system concept. represents resources to another. [The exception to the cy- clicity ofthe overall system is that energy (in the form ofsolar Industrial Ecology: A Systems Description radiation) is available as an external resource.] This type III system may be pictured as in Fig. 3. It is important to Traditional biological ecology is defined as the scientific study ofthe interactions that determine the distribution and abundance of organisms. The relationship between this I concept and that ofindustrial activities has been discussed by Unlimited ECOSYSTEM I Unlimited Frosch and Gallopoulost: Resources *. Component > Waste In a biological ecosystem, some of the organisms use sunlight, water, and minerals to grow, while others consume the first, alive or dead, along with minerals FIG. 1. Linear materials flows in type I ecology. The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge *Present address: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" tFrosch, R. A. & Gallopoulos, N., paper presented to the Royal in accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact. Society, London, February 21, 1990. 793 Downloaded by guest on October 2, 2021 794 Colloquium Paper: Jelinski et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89 (1992) ECOSYSTEM ECOSYSTEM Energy' SComponent W *; Energy and C Limited - i Limited Resources X ECOSYSTEM ECOSYSTEM Waste Energy * Component Component *; ; ECOSYSTEM ECOSYSTEM : Component Component ,; FIG. 2. Quasi-cyclic materials flows in type II ecology. FIG. 3. Cyclic materials flows in type III ecology. recognize that the cycles within the system tend to function on widely differing temporal and spatial scales, a behavior sumer, and the waste processor. To the extent that they that greatly complicates analysis and understanding of the perform operations within the nodes in a cyclic manner or system. organize to encourage cyclic flow of materials within the The ideal anthropogenic use ofthe materials and resources entire industrial ecosystem, they evolve into modes of oper- available for industrial processes (broadly defined to include ation that are more efficient, have less disruptive impact on agriculture, the urban infrastructure, etc.) would be one that external support systems, and are more like type III ecolog- is similar to the ensemble biological model. Many uses of ical behavior. Examples range from the recycling of iron materials have been and continue to be essentially dissipa- scrap by the heavy metals industry to the popularity ofgarage tive, however. That is, the materials are degraded, dispersed, sales for the reuse of products within the consumer domain. and lost in the course of a single normal use, mimicking the The schematic model of such an industrial ecosystem is type I unconstrained resource diagram. This trend can be shown in Fig. 4. Note that the flows within the nodes and associated with the maturation ofthe Industrial Revolution of within the industrial ecological system as a whole are much the 18th century, which, together with exponential increases larger than the external resource and waste flows. in human population and agricultural production, took place essentially in a context of global plenty in which copious Characterization of Industrial Ecolgy quantities of energy and raw materials were available. Many present day industrial processes and products still remain The first ofthe contributed papers in this issue is that ofPatel largely dissipative. Examples include lubricants, paints, pes- (1). His presentation emphasizes the basic characteristics of ticides, and automobile tires. industrial ecology and points out the many perceptions that Not all present day technological processes are completely inhibit such a system from functioning properly. He calls for dissipative, however. Where specific materials are suffi- enhanced communication among specialists, a restraint on ciently precious, some demonstrate ecological type II behav- the use ofjargon, and a willingness to develop new concepts ior, at least in part. An example is precious metals recovery. to deal with new approaches to understanding the functioning On the broadest ofproduct and time scales, there are many of industrial processes. demonstrations today that the flows in the ensemble of For many of the papers from the colloquium, it is helpful industrial ecosystems are so large that resource limitations to use the schematic model of Fig. 4 to place them into the are setting in: the rapid changes in atmospheric ozone, framework of the industrial ecosystem. From this perspec- increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the filling of tive, the paper by Frosch (2) treats the ensemble of constit- available waste disposal sites being examples. Accordingly, uents within the broken line. Perhaps the most striking of industrial systems (and other anthropogenic systems) are and Frosch's many points is that natural ecosystems, evolving will increasingly be under selective pressure to evolve so as over millions or billions of years, have produced every entity to move from linear (type I) to semicyclic (type II) modes of needed for a type III ecosystem. The industrial ecosystem, in operation. contrast, is a system moving from type I to type II behavior. The central domain of industrial ecology is conveniently If we wish it to approach a type III system, we may need to pictured with four central nodes: the materials extractor or artificially create some ofthe missing entities.