An environmental food packaging material part I: A case study of life-cycle assessment (LCA) for bamboo fiber environmental tableware

Abstract

Green economic development has become a new strategy for large countries to contend with the energy crises and environmental pollution. Bamboo is a kind of sustainable resource with a fast growth rate and strong carbon fixation capacity which can be used to make various eco-friendly products. Bamboo fiber (BF) tableware is a product which is developed to replace non-degradable plastic food packaging products. The study takes the life cycle assessment (LCA) of green BF tableware production in Wanxian, Chongqing city, China, as an example and compares with the polypropylene (PP) tableware standard database to investigate the impact of production, transportation, waste and disposal methods on resources, the environment, and human health. The results showed that the environmental coordination of bamboo fiber tableware (BF) was better than PP tableware. The environmental impact of the 2 kinds of tableware mainly occurred in the raw material acquisition and product transportation stages, and the main impact was human health damage. A comparative study of different disposal options after waste showed that the benefits of both types of tableware were in the order of recycling > incineration > landfill. Independent of the disposal ratio, the benefits of BF tableware are positive. In contrast, PP tableware positively impacts the overall environment only when waste recycling reaches more than 30 %. On this basis, ecological design suggestions for 2 kinds of tableware are presented.