Industrial ecology is a concept that appears like an oxymoron. Indeed, ecology
is the protection of the environment while the industry, pursuing economic
development, is considered as harmful to the biosphere. However, due to the
increased attention given to the natural environment protection, solutions need
to be developed to lessen the negative impact on the one hand and further, to
be able to develop the economy as well as protecting the environment at the
same time. Sustainable development is therefore seen as a development in which
resources are shared in the present as well as in the future for the benefit of all
species without impeding the economy. It requires each and every stakeholder to
take necessary actions. In a not so distant past, solutions have been undertaken
in the fashion of end-of-pipe solutions, following the logic to transfer the wastes
or pollutants from one medium to another in a linear fashion. Industrial Ecology
goes indeed further, in this concept the prod...