Environmental footprints of wood and bamboo reconstituted materials production in China: A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment

The environmental footprint of wood and bamboo reconstituted materials (scrimbers) has drawn increasing attention in the context of national carbon neutrality goals. This study conducted a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) of bamboo scrimber and wood scrimber based following ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. The results show that bamboo scrimber imposes a 29.4% greater total environmental burden than wood scrimber in the cradle-to-gate phase, mainly due to the higher consumption of phenolic resin and moso bamboo in bamboo scrimber. In contrast, the gate-to-gate environment impact of wood scrimber is 2.71 times that of bamboo scrimber. Raw material production dominates the environmental footprint for both materials, followed by manufacturing processes, with transportation contributing minimally. Key environment hotspots include phenolic resin, wood /bamboo resource consumption, and energy-intensive production stages. This study proposes technical measures to enhance sustainability such as optimizing resin usage and adopting energy-efficient technologies, providing actionable insights for policymakers and industry stakeholders • Environmental footprint of wood and bamboo reconstituted material was assessed. • EP, ADP, and GWP are the main environmental impact categories. • Phenolic resin is the largest contributor to all the environmental indicators. • Wood and bamboo reconstituted material is a natural carbon storage material.