Attributes of Successful Industrial Ecosystems

An important characteristic of successful biological ecosystems is their inertia, which is their resistance to alteration and damage, the key factors of which are productivity of basic food materials, diversity of species, constancy of numbers of various organisms, and resiiience in the ability of populations to recover from loss. Industrial ecosystems likewise have key attributes that are required for their welfare. These include energy, materials, and diversity. 

There are several approaches to providing materials. These can be classified as dematerialization in which less material is used for a specific purpose, substitution of abundant materials for scarce ones, recycling materials, and waste mining in which needed materials are extracted from wastes. 

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