Bamboo tissue paper may not be as eco-friendly as you think

In recent years, Chinese tissue paper made from bamboo has become a trendy choice for eco-friendly shoppers. However, new research suggests that these bamboo paper products may not offer significant climate benefits over fabrics produced in the United States and, in some cases, may be more detrimental to the environment.

The findings are detailed in a new paper by researchers at North Carolina State University, which compares the carbon footprint of bamboo tissue paper made in China to that of conventional tissue paper made in the United States and Canada. The researchers found that while the use of bamboo biomass itself did not produce more greenhouse gases than traditional wood, China’s electricity grid, which uses a lot of fossil fuels, led to a significant increase in emissions compared to cleaner fuel sources used in North America.

The article titled “Comparative life cycle assessment of bamboo-containing and wood-based sanitary fabrics: implications of fiber sourcing and conversion technologies” is published in Cleaner environmental systems.

“When it comes to emissions, the technology used to create toilet tissue paper is much more important than the type of fiber it’s made from,” said Naycari Forfora, lead author of the study and doctoral student at the NC State College of Natural Resources. “Because China’s power grid relies so heavily on coal for its electricity, emissions throughout the fabric supply chain are higher than what we saw with the wood-based option. »

Ronalds Gonzalez, an associate professor at NC State University and co-author of the paper, said making tissue paper from bamboo is not much different from using other wood sources.

“Bamboo is a crop like any other, and it undergoes the same production processes as Brazilian or Canadian wood,” Gonzalez said. “Consumers often view bamboo as a ‘tree-free’ option, but the trees used to make fabrics are planted and harvested in the same way as bamboo. When we then take into account the reliance of Chinese factories on coal, we begin to see how emissions from this product actually are higher than others.

Researchers found that Chinese bamboo fabric was responsible for nearly 2,400 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per ton of fabric produced, compared to 1,824 kgCO2eq/ton for American wood-based fabric. Chinese bamboo also underperformed in several environmental categories, including smog formation, respiratory effects and ecotoxicity.

It is worth noting that these differences largely disappeared when bamboo production took place in areas with clean electricity grids, reinforcing the conclusion that technological improvements are much more impactful than a change in fiber type when developing decarbonization strategies.

The authors are members of NC State’s Sustainable & Alternative Fibers Initiative (SAFI), the largest global coalition dedicated to advancing knowledge on the sustainability of conventional and alternative fibers. SAFI brings together more than 30 local and global partners from industry, academia and government to collaboratively drive innovation and responsible fiber development.

Co-authors include Rhonald Ortega, Isabel Urdaneta, Ivana Azuaje, Keren A. Vivas, Hasan Jameel and Richard Venditti of NC State.