Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Glued- Laminated Bamboo Based on a Life Cycle Assessment

The bamboo industry plays a significant strategic role in the world’s economy. Laminated bamboo, with increasing yearly yields, is the intermediate material for bamboo products such as furniture, floor board, and container floor. The trilaminar straight joint glued-laminated bamboo production line is the leading enterprise in Fujian Province, and it was used to conduct a load analysis of the data collected from a year’s production, based on the life cycle assessment system. The results show that the processing of glued-laminated bamboo contributes notably to the acidification potential, eutrophication potential, global warming potential, and photochemical ozone creation potential, whereas resource depletion and ozone depletion are affected by the urea-formaldehyde resin adhesive, among which the urea contributes the most. As for processing, carbonization, desiccation, and thermo-compression, these have the greatest impacts on the environmental load, with a total contribution rate of greater than 67%, as the main source for the power depletion is from the processing of fossil fuel. In addition, the oxynitride, phosphide, sulfide, aromatic hydrocarbon, etc., that are discharged from the reaction intensify the eutrophication potential, the photochemical ozone creation potential, and the acidification potential.