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Life cycle assessment of wood plastic decking manufacturing: Reduction of environmental impacts based on an industrial case study in China

Hongxun Cui, Yitao Zheng, Zheng Wang, Zeping Wang, Guozhen Li, Kok Hoong Wong, Jiawei Wang Orcid Logo, Yun Zhou, Philip Hall

Environmental Research, Volume: 287, Start page: 123147

Swansea University Author: Jiawei Wang Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.envres.2025.123147

Abstract

Climate change has spurred global efforts to mitigate carbon emissions, presenting significant challenges for the manufacturing sector in reducing the ecological footprint of its products. This study investigates a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) of wood-plastic decking, focusing on a Ch...

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Published in: Environmental Research
ISSN: 0013-9351 1096-0953
Published: Elsevier BV 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70814
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spelling 2025-11-03T10:16:09.3649002 v2 70814 2025-11-03 Life cycle assessment of wood plastic decking manufacturing: Reduction of environmental impacts based on an industrial case study in China 908c93a858e2ed0cf6fadaff3d3f43cc 0000-0001-5690-9107 Jiawei Wang Jiawei Wang true false 2025-11-03 EAAS Climate change has spurred global efforts to mitigate carbon emissions, presenting significant challenges for the manufacturing sector in reducing the ecological footprint of its products. This study investigates a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) of wood-plastic decking, focusing on a Chinese facility with an annual production capacity exceeding 20,000 tons. The results indicate that raw material acquisition and key manufacturing processes-raw material premixing, pelletizing and co-extrusion are the primary contributors to environmental impacts. Transitioning from conventional energy sources (e.g., China's electricity grid) to solar energy could reduce global warming potential (GWP) by 38.9 %. While mechanical testing confirms the viability of recycled wood plastic composites (WPCs) for partial raw material substitution, its rheological properties limit broader reuse. The recycling process, though energy-intensive due to its high energy consumption during milling, the GWP remains 84.2 % lower than incineration. Sensitivity analysis revealed that varying recycling rates from 25 % to 100 % significantly reduced marine eutrophication potential, freshwater ecotoxicity potential, marine ecotoxicity potential, and human non-carcinogenic toxicity potential by up to 8 %, while long-distance maritime transportation (up to 20,000 km) increased impacts like ozone depletion and human health ozone formation potentials. In addition, the substitution rate of RP had a relatively large effect on environmental impacts, whereas the service life showed minimal influence. This study offers actionable insights for stakeholders in the wood-plastic decking industry to reduce their environmental impact without requiring substantial modifications to existing production processes. Journal Article Environmental Research 287 123147 Elsevier BV 0013-9351 1096-0953 Life cycle assessment; Wood plastic decking; Rheological tests; Mechanical recycling; Greenhouse gas emissions 15 12 2025 2025-12-15 10.1016/j.envres.2025.123147 COLLEGE NANME Engineering and Applied Sciences School COLLEGE CODE EAAS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee This project has received funding from Ningbo Science and Technology Innovation 2025 Major Project (Grant ID:2022Z157), Ningbo International Science &Technology Cooperation Program (Grant ID:2023H005) and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101086071, project name ”CUPOLA — Carbon-neutral pathways of recycling marine plastic waste". 2025-11-03T10:16:09.3649002 2025-11-03T10:06:19.6771366 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering Hongxun Cui 1 Yitao Zheng 2 Zheng Wang 3 Zeping Wang 4 Guozhen Li 5 Kok Hoong Wong 6 Jiawei Wang 0000-0001-5690-9107 7 Yun Zhou 8 Philip Hall 9 70814__35536__bc7f6a58017f4cb395b9fc289db3a6d2.pdf 70814.VOR.pdf 2025-11-03T10:10:19.6372014 Output 14190635 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Life cycle assessment of wood plastic decking manufacturing: Reduction of environmental impacts based on an industrial case study in China
spellingShingle Life cycle assessment of wood plastic decking manufacturing: Reduction of environmental impacts based on an industrial case study in China
Jiawei Wang
title_short Life cycle assessment of wood plastic decking manufacturing: Reduction of environmental impacts based on an industrial case study in China
title_full Life cycle assessment of wood plastic decking manufacturing: Reduction of environmental impacts based on an industrial case study in China
title_fullStr Life cycle assessment of wood plastic decking manufacturing: Reduction of environmental impacts based on an industrial case study in China
title_full_unstemmed Life cycle assessment of wood plastic decking manufacturing: Reduction of environmental impacts based on an industrial case study in China
title_sort Life cycle assessment of wood plastic decking manufacturing: Reduction of environmental impacts based on an industrial case study in China
author_id_str_mv 908c93a858e2ed0cf6fadaff3d3f43cc
author_id_fullname_str_mv 908c93a858e2ed0cf6fadaff3d3f43cc_***_Jiawei Wang
author Jiawei Wang
author2 Hongxun Cui
Yitao Zheng
Zheng Wang
Zeping Wang
Guozhen Li
Kok Hoong Wong
Jiawei Wang
Yun Zhou
Philip Hall
format Journal article
container_title Environmental Research
container_volume 287
container_start_page 123147
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 0013-9351
1096-0953
doi_str_mv 10.1016/j.envres.2025.123147
publisher Elsevier BV
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Climate change has spurred global efforts to mitigate carbon emissions, presenting significant challenges for the manufacturing sector in reducing the ecological footprint of its products. This study investigates a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) of wood-plastic decking, focusing on a Chinese facility with an annual production capacity exceeding 20,000 tons. The results indicate that raw material acquisition and key manufacturing processes-raw material premixing, pelletizing and co-extrusion are the primary contributors to environmental impacts. Transitioning from conventional energy sources (e.g., China's electricity grid) to solar energy could reduce global warming potential (GWP) by 38.9 %. While mechanical testing confirms the viability of recycled wood plastic composites (WPCs) for partial raw material substitution, its rheological properties limit broader reuse. The recycling process, though energy-intensive due to its high energy consumption during milling, the GWP remains 84.2 % lower than incineration. Sensitivity analysis revealed that varying recycling rates from 25 % to 100 % significantly reduced marine eutrophication potential, freshwater ecotoxicity potential, marine ecotoxicity potential, and human non-carcinogenic toxicity potential by up to 8 %, while long-distance maritime transportation (up to 20,000 km) increased impacts like ozone depletion and human health ozone formation potentials. In addition, the substitution rate of RP had a relatively large effect on environmental impacts, whereas the service life showed minimal influence. This study offers actionable insights for stakeholders in the wood-plastic decking industry to reduce their environmental impact without requiring substantial modifications to existing production processes.
published_date 2025-12-15T12:45:45Z
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