Assessing the Impact of Machining Processes on Industrial Wood Packaging: An LCA-Based Approach

This study evaluated the environmental impact of industrial wood packaging production. Developed in collaboration with the institutional partner ASSOIMBALLAGGI, it contributes to a scientific context characterized by a scarcity of Life Cycle Assessment scientific literature applied to industrial wood packaging. Although some scientific papers focus on individual components of packaging, the sources addressing the entire life cycle of a complete packaging box are pretty limited. The analysis was conducted by ISO 14040:2021 and ISO 14044:2021 standards and following the PCR Packaging 2019:13 by basing a gate-to-gate approach. Primary data were directly collected from the two companies, and secondary data were supplemented by databases and scientific literature. The environmental impact assessment used all the categories from the Environmental Footprint (EF) 3.1 methodology; however, particular focus is given to the Global Warming Potential (GWP) category. The results indicate that the production phase has a marginal effect on the overall environmental impact compared to stages such as raw material procurement, use, and end-of-life. This suggests that the production processes for industrial wood packaging are energy efficient. However, the Life Cycle Assessment allowed identifying hot spot stages of processing and machinery that generate the highest energy consumption and environmental impacts, providing valuable insights for optimizing the most critical operations along the production chain.