Industrial ecosystems? The use of tropes in the literature of industrial ecology and eco-industrial parks

Abstract

Industrial ecology is often promoted as a practice to close industrial production loops and reduce waste, thereby making better use of resources and preventing the overuse of raw materials. Eco-industrial parks (EIPs) are the spatial concentrations of businesses that use the by-products of one industrial process as inputs to another. Both sets of practices are based on particular tropes involving nature. This paper explores the use of various tropes in the literature of industrial ecology and EIPs. It highlights the need better to understand the pre-theoretical and theoretical bases of industrial ecology and to increase the potential for practical implementation by applying insights from the literatures of urban planning, social science and economic geography.