Material substitution: a resource supply perspective

A common approach in 'green design' is to replace a potentially hazardous material or process by one that appears less problematic. This seemingly reasonable action can sometimes be undesirable, however, if it results in the rapid depletion of a potentially scarce resource or increased extraction of other environmentally problematic materials. Several examples of such equivocal proposals are presented, and a formalism is developed for a resource supply perspective on material substitutions, (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.