Applying industrial ecology in rapidly industrializing Asian countries

Rapidly industrializing Asian countries (RIACs) face both development and environmental challenges. The increasing resource and environmental pressures have impeded RIACs' efforts to quickly promote their people's quality of life, while protecting their natural environment. Due to lack of resources, technologies and capital, RIACs need to seek a more integrated development strategy. Industrial ecology may be one solution, as it aims at optimizing the use of materials and energy in products, processes, industrial sectors and economies by systemically mimicking natural systems in an industrial setting. The relevant practices and experiences in the developed world have proved that there is a degree of effectiveness and efficiency to development through the application of industrial ecology. It is even more critical to applying the principles of industrial ecology in RIACs with fewer resources. However, compared with the developed nations, RIACs face different environmental, economic and social constraints. Therefore, RIACs have to adopt different approaches to implement the concept of industrial ecology. In this paper, we first introduce the environmental, economic and social constraints in RIACs and imply that RIACs need a sustainable industrial development strategy, namely, ‘producing more with less’. Then, we review the current practices on eco-industrial development in RIACs. As a specific case study, due to its size and increasing influence on the global economy and politics, China will be examined in detail with regard to its eco-industrial development practices. Through these approaches, the challenges to applying industrial ecology to RIACs will be analyzed and recommendations are provided.