Week 45 - The Big To Do About Bamboo!

I’m starting to see it everywhere. Bamboo sheets, bamboo clothing, bamboo flooring, bamboo cutting boards, bamboo fencing etc. So I was thinking, what’s so great about bamboo? It turns out it may be pretty amazing stuff!

What it is: Bamboo is a grass.

What it’s not: Bamboo is not a tree.

Why it’s great: There are several reasons.

1. Bamboo sucks up four times more CO2 when it grows than trees do.
2. It’s a rapidly renewable resource.
3. It can grow 1 - 2 feet, a day.
4. It can be harvested every 3 - 5 years.
5. It can be grown without pesticides or chemicals.
6. It takes very little water to grow.
7. It’s by products are biodegradable.
8. Bamboo will break down in landfills.
9. It’s durable (some varieties can be as strong as steel).
10. When made into clothing, sheets etc. it is so soft it has been compared to silk and cashmere.
11. Bamboo is innately anti-microbial and lets your skin breathe with its naturally formed micro-structure.
12. Bamboo fabric keeps you close to two degrees cooler in hot weather and also keeps you significantly warmer in the cold.
13. As flooring, it is durable, beautiful and often less expensive than wood.
14. It is harder than some popular hardwoods, including maple and oak.

The Concerns

Too good to be true right? Well there are some concerns; some significant concerns.

According to thegreenguide.com: “some questions have been raised about the environmental soundness of the manufacturing process involved in turning the bamboo stalk into fiber. Because most of it takes place in China (need you read on?), the process is not transparent to consumers, nor is the environmental regulation stringent; this viscose process is thought to involve harsh chemicals in a process similar to the production of rayon. However, much of the bamboo, including that used by Bamboosa and Shirts of Bamboo, goes through a strict Swiss certification known as Oeko-Tex, which ensures that fabric made from bamboo fibers is chemical-free.”

Others have raised concerns about how bamboo is grown:

1. To keep up with demand, some farmers have now started raising bamboo on plantations as a mono-crop or single crop. This reduces biodiversity (for info on biodiversity, see my post about growing heirloom varieties), leading to increases in pests (thereby increasing pesticide use) and plant diseases.


2. The clear-cutting of forests is taking place, to make room for plantations.


3. The increased erosion which results from clear cutting.


4. Toxic glues. One booming area for bamboo is cutting boards. They are beautiful, but you need to know what you are buying. Some cheaply made boards are glue together with formaldehyde-based glues. Formaldehyde is used to in the drying process. Tom Sullivan, president and founder of Totally Bamboo (totally bamboo.com offers formaldehyde free cutting boards, as does bambuhome.com), explains “bamboo is so porous, it requires a thicker glue to prevent absorption while keeping the product intact. But thick glue takes longer to dry. "Formaldehyde allows you to apply heat and have the glue-bond done in about ten minutes," he notes, their formaldehyde-free glue takes a few hours to dry.
   Although it’s said the levels of formaldehyde are safe, who wants to knowingly expose themselves and their families to it?

The Bottom Line

“Despite the environmental shortcomings in production, bamboo still has a much lighter environmental impact than pesticide-laden conventional cotton and petroleum-derived nylon and polyester synthetics“.

If you are going to try bamboo products (and I would be willing), do a little research first and read the packaging. Just keep in mind, that although bamboo looks promising as being the answer to many of our environmental problems, its widespread use is relatively new; there are many kinks to work out in both its production and manufacture. On the up side, the more people get on board, the more quickly those kinks can be straightened out!