Light industry is usually less capital intensive than heavy industry, and is more consumer-oriented than business-oriented (i.e., most light industry products are produced for end users rather than as intermediates for use by other industries). Light industry facilities typically have less environmental impact than those associated with heavy industry, and zoning laws are more likely to permit light industry near residential areas. It is the production of small consumer goods.
One economic definition states that light industry is a "manufacturing activity that uses moderate amounts of partially processed materials to produce items of relatively high value per unit weight".
Examples of light industries include the manufacture of clothes, shoes, furniture, consumer electronics and home appliances. Conversely, ship building would fall under heavy industry.
Read more about Light Industry: Characteristics
Famous quotes containing the words light and/or industry:
“Ye say they all have passed away,
That noble race and brave;
That their light canoes have vanished
From off the crested wave;
That, mid the forests where they roamed,
There rings no hunters’ shout;
But their name is on your waters,
Ye may not wash it out.”
—Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791–1865)
“No delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make up for lack of mother-wit, either in science or in practical life.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)