A perspective on industrial ecology and its application to a metals-industry ecosystem

An industrial ecosystem is a synthetic analog of a natural ecosystem where connections through the flux of materials and energy between the various firms/production units define the system. In natural ecology, observation and analysis need to be carried out at different levels of aggregation to understand and predict system behavior. Similarly, a systems perspective applied to the analysis of the complex industrial ecosystems may help better understand the interactions between the various entities, and their overall interactions with the natural environment. Such an analysis can also assist in the efforts to effectively mitigate the environmental impacts of industrial production. In addition, insights from natural ecological studies might also hold valuable lessons applicable to the efforts to guide industrial production towards a sustainable future. Our study of firms in the metal sector (mainly copper and its alloys and some precious metals) in the New England area has led to an understanding of the industrial ecosystem involving and surrounding these firms, and the nature of the material flows in this ecosystem. Overall, for this system, the recirculation of metal seems to be extremely high, a finding that is supported by the metal use and release data reported by Massachusetts firms. The roles of the various entities in the ecosystem have been clarified, including those that are essential to the recirculation of the metals. Furthermore, other issues such as economic and regulatory factors, relationship with regulators, industry networks, etc. have been studied to highlight the key promoters and barriers to recycling. Based on this, some preliminary policy conclusions are drawn along with suggestions for further research to deepen our understanding of ecologies of industries.