Assessing ecological footprints of products from the rubber industry and palm oil mills in Thailand

摘要

Rubber and crude palm oil (CPO) are the major agricultural products of Thailand. This work aimed at evaluating the ecological footprint (EF) of ribbed smoked sheet (RSS) from cooperative rubber sheet factories, ribbed smoked sheet bale (RSSB) from large rubber sheet factories, Standard Thai Rubber (STR) from block rubber factories, concentrated latex from concentrated latex factories, and CPO of palm oil mills in Thailand. The system boundary of cradle to gate was set according to the life cycle assessment approach. The fresh latex and cup lump from rubber plantations and fresh fruit bunch from the oil palm plantations were the major inputs for the rubber factory and the palm oil mill, respectively. EFs of the selected products from high to low were STR 20 at 7.06 global hectares (gha)/tonne, RSSB at 6.87 gha/ tonne, RSS at 6.78 gha/tonne, STR 5 at 6.68 gha/tonne, concentrated latex at 5.07 gha/tonne, and CPO at 4.34 gha/tonne, on average. The EF of forest for production of fresh latex, cup lump and unsmoked sheet, and fresh fruit bunch accounted for more than 92% of the total EF. The EF for processing was quite less for the products of both rubber factories and palm oil mills. The production of RSS had a high potential for reducing the EF, followed by that of concentrated latex and STR, respectively. In 2015, the total EF for the production of rubber products and CPO in Thailand was 35.2 and 30.5 million gha for the average and best observed scenarios, respectively. The alternative methods for reduction of EF should be emphasized. The policy makers should include the EF values as the indicator for supporting the expansion of rubber and oil palm industries. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.