Economía ecológica frente a economía industrial

El caso de la industria de la curtiduría en México

Abstract

This document identifies the differences between Ecological Economic and Industrial Ecology and their possible coincidences. The first one emphasize those alternatives that rescue the traditions and use innovations for the design of new middle systems of production which are more friendly with the environment that let contribute to generate structures that guarantee the social justice; this framework incorporates the Precautionary Principle and the concept of the Ecological Debt generated by the industry. The second one describes the elation of the industrial system with the biosphere to thus be able to propose one relation that can be less harmful with the environment; this is defined on market terms and it puts a lot of trust on the technological advance to solve the existing contradictions. However, this focus still considering the natural resources as finite and it does not consider the contradictions of valuing them. Another aspect to consider is the irreversible of the damage to the environment which are distrievident in the case of the tannery industry in Mexico which is analyzed under these two frameworks. Key words: ecological economy, industrial ecology, ecoefficiency, cleaner production, principle of precaution.