“Industrial ecology is the means by which humanity can deliberately and rationally approach and
maintain a desirable carrying capacity, given continued economic, cultural and technological evolution.
The concept requires that an industrial system be viewed not in isolation from its surrounding
systems, but in concert with them. It is a system view in which one seeks to optimize the total materials
cycle from virgin material, to finished material, to product, to waste product, and to ultimate
disposal. Factors to be optimized include resources, energy and capital.