Bamboo is the fastest growing woody plant on earth, period.

Back in 2005,  it was estimated that there were approximately 37 million hectares of bamboo resources on our planet. As coincidence would have it—when I went to Google to convert the hectares to acres, I ran across this—“Over the last five years, the world suffered a net loss of some 37 million hectares (91 million acres) of forest, according to data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.” Incidentally, those numbers were referring to 2000 to 2005.

According to the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (Inbar), 1.5 billion people depend on bamboo, either directly or indirectly. They also estimate that one billion people live in bamboo houses. That’s one in seven people on earth.

Bamboo is self regenerating. I’ll say it again…”self regenerating.”  That means that every year the bamboos can be cut a few feet above ground, and then they grow back–readying themselves for next years harvest. No irrigation system, no pesticides, no herbicides and no replanting. Additionally, because of their manageable size and weight, bamboos do not require heavy industrial equipment to harvest and transport.

While the bamboos are busy commencing with their cyclical growth patterns (depending on end use, harvest cycles may vary), they are doing so without any depletion or deterioration of the surrounding soil. In fact, it is said that the bamboos can actually contribute to an increase in the water table as well as an increase in new soil.

It should also be noted that bamboos are an incredibly vigorous and durable plant. Think of them as the German cockroach of the plant world. After the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, yes, you guessed it, bamboos were the first sign of new plant life. On top of the other ecological benefits, they also provide carbon sequestration–along the lines of 62 tons per acre as compared to 16 tons per acre for trees, while also providing 35% more oxygen than trees.

Bamboo is, plain and simple, the most abundant plant resource on earth–and an ecological marvel. There are literally thousands of uses for these wonderful bamboos that inhabit this earth with us. They have–and can play–a major role in reducing deforestation as well as many other ecological benefits.

In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in local governments around the world that are encouraging and funding the expansion of the bamboo industry for their local citizens. Why are they doing this? Because there are significant ecological and economic benefits to be had. It should be noted that the aforementioned ecological benefits are in no way a comprehensive list.

Many of the people that are actually doing the harvesting/farming of the bamboos were once at the lower end of the income hierarchy in their respective countries. In fact, many of them were at the poverty level. The great thing about farming bamboos is that according to the Prosperity Institute, about 60% of the value of the produced bamboos goes directly to the farmers.

One downside would be if we were to start seeing forests being cleared for the more profitable farming of bamboos. Fact is, there was some of this going on some years back (and probably still is in certain areas), but the experts report that they are really not seeing this today–particularly in China–where 80% of the world’s bamboo production comes from. In fact, since the 90s, the area of bamboos has been increasing at a pretty substantial rate of approximately 120,000 acres per year– much of it being in the area of small farms where the land owners are realizing the potential for economic stability through the farming of the bamboos. They also report that the density of the moso (a type of bamboo) forests have increased from 550 culms per acre in the 1970s to over 800 culms per acre as of 2005. This is attributed to optimized structure and more efficient management of the bamboos.

For “green” conscious consumers in the United States, there is the legitimate concern of carbon footprint in getting the various bamboo products here, whether it’s bamboo clothing or bamboo sheets. Consider this–according to the Economic Policy Institute, China represents 83% of the entire U.S. trade deficit in non-oil goods. This is not to excuse the carbon footprint that comes with bamboo goods, rather it is just an unfortunate fact of the current economic state of affairs in the U.S. (with regard to our ability to find and purchase goods that are manufactured here as opposed to China). That said, according to the Department of Energy, transporting bamboo from Asia to California results in approximately the same fuel usage as transporting timber from the East coast to the West coast here in the United States. Again, this is certainly not optimum for the green conscious consumer, but perhaps lends a bit of perspective.

I would be remiss if bamboo manufacturing into textile product was not at least touched on here. In marketing they call this “transparency”. So I give you a little transparency. I am not going to go in depth, though, as the focus of this article is intended to be more about the attributes and abundance of the bamboos as a natural, organic resource for textiles and its many other uses.

There are two main types of bamboo manufacturing for the purpose of turning the woody plants into fiber. The first is often referred to as the “mechanical” method. This is a labor intensive process that is mainly employed on a very small scale primarily in parts of Asia. It is generally regarded as a very eco-friendly process for turning bamboo into fiber. The reality is that at present time, with current available technology and equipment, it has not proven to be a viable means of production on any kind of commercial scale. Consequently, you would be hard pressed to find a U.S. retailer that has genuine “mechanically” produced bamboo clothing, bedding etc. If this is important to you, and you happen to run across a retailer that makes such claims about their bamboo products, I suggest you ask for some sort of documentation. I have seen my fair share of ecommerce sites that are touting this certification or that certification…when the truth is…90% of the bamboo fiber used for clothing, bedding etc., in the U.S., comes from the same bamboo manufacturer in China. The manufacturer does carry the Oeko Tex certification that confirms the absence of any harmful chemicals in the finished product, but it does not cover the actual manufacturing process. There are many Oeko Tex certifications, some of which you can read about in our bamboo facts section.

The reality is that the chemical processing of bamboo is similar to that of rayon. It is clearly the least eco-friendly attribute of bamboo fabrics. It’s not that bamboo processing is necessarily any worse than the production of some other fabrics, but rather that bamboo being the organic, abundant resource that it is causes some to point to the manufacturing process and use that alone as the criteria for which bamboo fabric should be extirpated of its “green” status.

The simple fact is that there are many, many things to consider if one really wants to try and analyze the environmental effects of an end product–and take it all the way back to its planting stage–and the resources required to sustain its growth (or lack thereof), and the resources needed for farming/harvesting and replanting (or lack thereof), and the resources involved in getting it to production, and then the manufacturing itself, and then the transportation to the end user—there is just no way for the average consumer (myself included) to have an accurate picture of a textile products overall effect on our environment, be it the negatives or the positives.

Perhaps sometime in the near future…one of the companies that specialize in carbon footprint analysis, or environmental impact analysis, will do a study on bamboo fabric vs. cotton or another main stream textile? We want to bring our customers as much information as possible on all the different aspects of bamboo fabric. Until we have such a study, or data, it will have to be up to you…our visitor, to choose what fabric you feel suits your lifestyle best.

I’m not even going to go into the superior characteristics of bamboo fabric itself. If you own bamboo bedding or clothing, then you already know how amazing it is. For those that don’t yet own it, all I can say is don’t be the last guy to throw out that 8-track and purchase a cd player in 2009–only to realize then, what you had been missing out on all those years!

Bamboo is here to stay. If for no other reason than for its vast abundance and its blatant superiority over its cotton counterpart. In the meantime, we will continue our research and work to bring to market any bamboo textile products that have been manufactured where environmental considerations have been taken into account–provided that it meets our quality standards.

As for the title…some anti-bamboo folk, wish to discredit the sustainability, and/or other attributes of bamboo fabric, so the title was simply an attempt at sarcasm, for those individuals.

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Tagged as: bamboo, Bamboo Fabric, bamboo fiber, certifications, eco-friendly, environment, farmers, green, planet, sustainable