Is Bamboo Sustainable?
The fastest growing grass has made it's mark as an eco-friendly crop.
Bamboo is having it's well deserved moment in the spotlight. Given all the buzz words surrounding this plant, just how sustainable is bamboo?
As a fast growing crop, that requires no fertilizer and which regenerates from the roots once harvested. This means it does not need to be replanted. Compared to cotton, bamboo uses a fraction of the amount of water and can be grown without pesticides - making the advantages pretty clear!
The first step in creating a yarn or fabric from bamboo is to comb out the bamboo fibers and spin them into thread (and in our case then into yarn). Once bamboo is in the thread form it is woven into a linen type material when processed most sustainably. Bamboo can be a highly sustainable crop if grown under the correct conditions. Some manufacturing of bamboo fabrics can be highly intensive and may use harmful chemicals.
Bamboo fabric and yarn production avoids the extensive pesticides in non-organic cotton, production is also not nearly as chemically intensive as synthetic fibres.
The advantages over cotton when it comes to sustainable farming are clear, although there is some work to be done in making the crop widely available and cost effective.
- Courtney