Industrial symbiosis is part of the emerging field of industrial ecology. Graedel and Allenby (2002) help to put industrial symbiosis in the context of industrial ecology:

'One of the most important concepts of industrial ecology is that, like the biological system, it rejects the concept of waste. Dictionaries define waste as useless or worthless material. In nature, however, nothing is eternally discarded; in various ways all materials are reused, generally with great efficiency. Natural systems have evolved these patterns because acquiring materials from their reservoirs is costly in terms of energy and resources, and this is something to be avoided whenever possible. In our industrial world, discarding materials wrestled from the Earth system at great cost is also generally unwise. Hence materials and products that are obsolete should be termed 'residues' rather than 'wastes', and it should be recognised that wastes are merely residues that our economy has not yet learned to use efficiently.'

Industrial symbiosis accelerates the transition from a linear system (traditional process) towards a circular system; to achieve a low carbon, sustainable economy.