Light industry are industries that usually are less capital-intensive than

heavy industries Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...

and are more

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or use purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

-oriented than

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

-oriented, as they typically produce smaller consumer goods. Most light industry products are produced for

end user In product development, an end user (sometimes end-user) is a person who ultimately uses or is intended to ultimately use a product. The end user stands in contrast to users who support or maintain the product, such as sysops, system administrato ...

s rather than as intermediates for use by other industries. Light industry facilities typically have a smaller environmental impact than those associated with heavy industry. For that reason,

zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...

laws are more likely to permit light industry near

residential area A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...

s. One definition states that light industry is a "

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

activity that uses moderate amounts of partially processed materials to produce items of relatively high value per unit weight".

Characteristics

Compared to heavy industries, light industries require fewer

raw material A raw material, also known as a feedstock, unprocessed material, or primary commodity, is a basic material that is used to produce goods, finished goods, energy, or intermediate materials/Intermediate goods that are feedstock for future finished ...

s, space, and power. While light industry typically causes little pollution, particularly compared to heavy industry, some light industries can cause significant pollution or risk of contamination. For example, electronics manufacturing, itself often a light industry, can create potentially harmful levels of

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

chemical waste Chemical waste is any excess, unused, or unwanted chemical. Chemical waste may be classified as hazardous waste, non-hazardous waste, universal waste, or household hazardous waste, each of which is regulated separately by national government ...

s in soil without proper handling of solder and waste products (such as cleaning and degreasing agents used in the manufacture).

Industry sectors

Food industry The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditional, ...

Paper making Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is made using industrial machinery, while handmade paper survives as a special ...

Plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...

* Leather industry *

Textiles Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

* Household electric appliances Pad printing machine

General-use products

* Kitchen and dining products * Beauty and personal care * Home textiles *

Cleaning Cleaning is the process of removing unwanted substances, such as dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities, from an object or environment. Cleaning is often performed for beauty, aesthetic, hygiene, hygienic, Function (engineering), function ...

and storage * Clock, watch, and eyewear * Gardening * Household sundries * Advertising and packaging

History

The

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

traces the use of the term "light industry" from 1916 onwards. Within the later stages of the Industrial Revolution, the development of light industry tended to precede that of heavy industry.

References

Industries (economics) {{econ-stub