ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the principles of industrial ecology, investigates the superficial ties between ecology and industrial ecology and indicates their contradictions based on the case of Kalundborg. It discusses the perspectives of a genuine interchange between these two disciplinary fields. The dominant trend in industrial ecology hinges on the basic strategic principle of the substitution of natural resources by the rise of technology. More problematic is the theme of the optimization of the closed loop system, which is the guiding principle of industrial ecology, and is directly inspired by the functioning of natural ecosystems, where any release from an organism is sooner or later assimilated by another organism. According to this approach, organizing industrial societies as natural ecosystems would 'suffice' to create the conditions of their sustainability. Researchers in industrial ecology work on concepts that feed on insights from multiple disciplines that structure the scientific community's vision in the field.
