Life Cycle Assessment and Eco-Efficiency of Para-Rubber Wood Production in Thailand

Thailand is currently the world's leader in para-rubber wood furniture exports, contributing revenue to the country of more than $1 billion US annually. However, the life cycle of para-rubber wood production causes environmental impact in multiple ways. This research aims to investigate the environmental impact and eco-efficiency of the para-rubber wood industry. The life cycle inventory of such is gathered from more than 60% of the entire para-rubber cultivation areas in Thailand, which can be considered as the national database. Five gate-to-gate procedures are included in this assessment, namely plantation, felling, mill saw, finger joint, and lamination. The life cycle impacts of 15 products are assessed on a cradle-to-gate basis with SimaPro 7.3.2 applied to characterize five impact categories, including global warming potential, abiotic depletion potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, and ozone depletion potential. The eco-efficiency level of each process is calculated and compared. According to this study, emission sources of the industry can be pointed to the activities in each life cycle step: direct emission, fertilizer production, chemical production, biomass fuel production, fossil fuel production, transport fuel production, and electricity. As a result, plantations exhibit the most eco-efficiency while the mill saw is the step that possesses the highest potential to be enhanced to the highest eco-efficiency. A potential to move onto a higher level in terms of felling and the finger-joint process is virtually impossible.