One environmental friendly wood adhesive based on waterborne polyurethane (WPU) grafted gelatin (G) was investigated in this research. The G was extracted from chromium shavings waste firstly, and then mixed with pre-polymer emulsion of WPU to synthesis the graft copolymer (WPUG) via solvent-free emulsion copolymerization. The synthesized copolymer was characterized regarding the mechanical properties test, TGA, FT-IR and other analysis technology. The results indicated that the WPUG has good stability, water resisting. The film-forming and thermal stability of G were improved after reacted with the pre-polymer of WPU, and the temperature of maximum weight loss was over 350 oC. The WPUG adhesive has excellent bonding power and mechanical properties, the dry bonding strength could reach 4.21 MPa when the R value was 1.5. The preparation of copolymer not only can perfectly satisfy the need of environment-friendly wood adhesives, but can also effectively improve the recycling use of chromium shavings waste.