Chap. 11. Toward a Greener Anthrosphere through Industrial Ecology 281
formed and assembled or, in the case of consumables such as detergents, formulated to
give the desired product. Scrap materials, rejected components, and off-specification
consumables generated during goods fabrication may go to recycling and remanufacturing.
From goods fabrication, manufactured items or formulated substances are taken to a
user sector, which includes consumers and industrial users. In a successful system of
industrial ecology, waste materials from the user sector are minimized and, ideally, totally
eliminated. Spent goods from the user sector are taken to recycling and remanufacturing
to be introduced back into the materials flow of the system. Such items may consist
of automobile components that are cleaned, have bearings replaced, and otherwise
refurbished for the rebuilt automobile parts market. Another typical item is paper, which
is converted back to pulp that is made into paper again. In some cases the recycling and
remanufacturing sector salvages materials that go back to materials processing to start
the whole cycle over. An example of such a material is scrap aluminum that is melted
down and recast into aluminum for goods fabrication. Communications are essential
to a successful industrial ecosystem, as is a reliable, rapid transportation system. It is
especially important that these two sectors work well in modern manufacturing practice
which calls for “just in time” delivery of materials and components to avoid the costs of
storing such items.
An important characteristic of an industrial ecosystem is its scope. A regional scope
large enough to encompass several industrial enterprises, but small enough for them to
interact with each other on a constant basis is probably the most satisfactory scale to
consider. Frequently such systems are based around transportation systems. Segments of
interstate highways over which goods and materials move between enterprises by truck
may constitute industrial ecosystems.
11.2. Metabolic Processes in Industrial Ecosystems
Industrial metabolism refers to the processes to which materials and components
are subjected in industrial ecosystems. It is analogous to the metabolic processes that
occur with food and nutrients in biological systems. Like biological metabolism, industrial
metabolism may be addressed at several levels. A level of industrial metabolism at which
green chemistry, especially, comes into play is at the molecular level where substances
are changed chemically to give desired materials or to generate energy. Industrial
metabolism can be addressed within individual unit processes in a factory, at the factory
level, at the industrial ecosystem level, and even globally.
A significant difference between industrial metabolism as it is now practiced and
natural metabolic processes relates to the wastes that these systems generate. Natural
ecosystems have developed such that true wastes are virtually nonexistent. For example,
even those parts of plants that remain after biodegradation of plant materials form
soil humus (see “Soil Organic Matter” in Chapter 10, Section 10.6) that improves the
conditions of soil on which plants grow. Anthropogenic industrial systems, however,
have developed in ways that generate large quantities of wastes, where a waste may be
defined as dissipative use of natural resources. Furthermore, human use of materials
has a tendency to dilute and dissipate materials and disperse them to the environment.