Two Distinct Environmental Impacts:

1) Resource consumption: The issue is the exhaustion of a given natural resource (e.g. oil) due to overexploitation (extraction that has happened faster than nature can replenish the resource).

2) Waste generation: The issue is that a product, by-product, or waste created by a product is emitting a substance that nature cannot easily and quickly absorb. This is commonly known as “biodegradability”—or how long does a given good take to return to nature.