Fab Fabrics: The Pros and Cons of Bamboo
Bamboo is getting a lot of hype lately as an Earth-friendly fabric. Is it everything it’s cracked up to be?
[Creative Commons photo by Joi]
This question has been nagging me lately, so I did a little bit of digging. It looks like there are some upsides and some downsides to bamboo fabric. Let’s start with the bad news first and talk about the good news last.
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The Cons
The main issue with bamboo is how many companies turn the stalks into fiber. It’s made in a similar way to rayon. The plant is mashed up and basically “cooked” in harsh chemicals like sodium hydroxide (another term for lye) and carbon disulfide. According to Michael over at Organic Clothing:
Breathing low levels of carbon disulfide can cause tiredness, headache and nerve damage. Carbon disulfide has been shown to cause neural disorders in workers at rayon manufacturers. Low levels of exposure to sodium hydroxide can cause irritation of the skin and eyes.
Nasty stuff! The process for creating and bleaching bamboo fabric sounds like it can be pretty toxic.
One of the major claims about bamboo is that it grows quickly, making it a sustainable resource. Its recent explosion in popularity has been putting bamboo’s quick growing properties to the test. Overharvesting is such a problem now that “many species of the plant are on the verge of extinction.” According to Eco Geek, there is a biotech company working on a way to save these waning species of bamboo.
Yikes. Those are some serious downsides! But it’s not that easy. There are a lot of good things about bamboo fabric.
The Pros
Bamboo is actually not a tree, it’s a grass. Like hemp, it does not require harsh chemical pesticides and fertilizers and it actually helps improve the soil where it’s grown! It requires very little water to grow and absorbs more greenhouse gases and releases more oxygen than many species of timber trees.
Not all bamboo uses the harsh chemical process described above. Some companies, like Boston-based Greenyarn are finding more ecofriendly means to turn bamboo into fabric. Other companies are using a process that not only requires more benign chemicals, but the processing is “closed loop,” meaning that over 99% of the chemicals are captured and used again. Look for certifications like Oeko-Tex, Soil Association, SKAL or KRAV. These are reputable third-party certifiers that verify if a company’s practices are environmentally friendly.
My Take
So how green is bamboo? You’ll have to do a little label-reading if you want to avoid the stuff made with carbon disulfide and lye. I think you come out ahead when you’re comparing it to conventional cotton, because of the pesticides and fertilizers that cotton requires, and it’s definitely a better choice than conventional fleece or polyester. If you’ve got the option to use organic cotton or hemp, though, you’re better off opting for that.
The really good news is that the more we spread the word about bamboo’s pros and cons, the more companies will have to listen to our concerns.
What’s up with fleece? I thought it was made from recycled plastic bottles? Have I totally bought into some long term green washing?
Good article! Thanks for doing the research…
Nice blog too! ~Tim
thanks so much for covering this. As you said most bamboo fabric is far from ‘green’ and has long term negative effects on plant workers and entire ecosystems. Add to that: consumer demand in the West has made bamboo so popular that in some areas of SE Asia ancient forests are being clearcut to make more growing room for bamboo. A tre is like a great big storehouse of carbon, so when it’s cut, a huge whoosh gets let out into the atmosphere, and no amount of replanting will negate that. Organic cotton, as you said, is the greenest choice.
best
Lynda Fassa
author
Green Babaies, Sage Moms
Green Kids, Sage Famiilies
environemntal writer
PlanetGreen
founder
Green Babies, Inc.
You didn’t mention that virtually all bamboo grown in the world is processed or passes through China at some point, adding to the pollution caused by shipping these items halfway around the world, plus the fact that China is now well-known for unsafe manufacturing practices. The other, even bigger downside is that the growing popularity of bamboo is causing farmers to clear-cut old growth hardwood forests in Southeast Asia to make room for more bamboo to grow. This will upset the ecological balance and cause diseases to manifest themselves, creating a cycle of pesticide spraying and non-organic disease controls to be used, thereby destroying any benefit of using bamboo.
I’m intrigued by bamboo, like everyone else, but I think, in this case, that a lot more improvements need to be made in manufacturing and environmental impact before I can jump on that bandwagon.
@cody - Some fleece is recycled, but not all. It’s not greenwashing, but you do have to keep an eye on the labels.
@Tim, @lynda - Thank you!
@kath - Thank you so much for mentioning this! I considered talking about it coming from China because of the fair labor issue but couldn’t find any good sources. I didn’t know about the clear-cutting. It sounds sort of like the palm oil problem. That’s horrible! I totally agree - it’s an intriguing option, but I’m not quite sold.
It’s about time people start talking seriously about viscose bamboo. Usually it’s only called bamboo, but it’s truly a viscose made out of bamboo. Viscose it’s one of the worst fibres one can produce. In Europe his production is almost finished and was substituted by Lyocel/Tencel because of the impact on the environment. Thatś why you find viscose producer in third world countries. One of the latest marketing campaign was the bamboo viscose. I am afraid they are misleading consumers with a green message and incorrect labelling. It’s my opinion that you can’t indicate in the composition label Bamboo. Instead you should use at least Viscose made out of Bamboo (instead of eucalyptus). Viscose produced by Lenzing gets it’s wood from sustainable forests. I think no one can say that about bamboo producers.
Regarding the production of fabrics, bamboo viscose poses a lot of problems because of the very low quality of the fiber, making it harder to finish, with bigger and more expensive production. It has also a very low life spam. A piece made of bamboo viscose get unusable very quickly also.
For me it’s the worst cellulosic fibre around and marketed in way that is misleading to consumers. I don’t trust brands that state they have a great new fiber, the bamboo, they are trying to deceive me.
Thank you for researching this! I see bamboo popping up everywhere, there was a whole line of t-shirts made from it at Target. I had heard that the processing was not always great, and now I understand why. There really is no “magic green fabric” that doesn’t impact the earth in some way.
Thanks for all of the great feedback, guys! I’m appreciating all of the well-informed comments. Keep ‘em coming!
Uh-oh, and I thought I was doing good by buying bamboo-containing socks at Target. I’d better check that label.
Around here (DC area), bamboo is considered almost a weed, because you cannot keep it from spreading and taking over your yard. It is everywhere along the roadside and between people’s yards. I was actually thinking of PLANTING some, if that was possible, in my postage stamp yard. I love the look and the shade and the beauty of it, and also that it grows fast. Still thinking on that one, though.
I’m so glad this has finally come up. Thanks so much for doing some digging and thanks to all the very informed commentary. I’m a hemp and certified organic cotton girl all the way