Bamboo Towels - Facts about Bamboo Textiles
Pure Fiber 100% Bamboo Towels
The Natural, Green, and Eco-friendly Textile Material of 21st century
Bamboo textiles are naturally antibacterial and hypoallergenic and are grown without the use of chemicals or pesticides. They are one of the Earth’s best sustainable and renewable resources.
The are many environmental benefits to using bamboo. Bamboo plants are very quick growers and do not require fertilizers or pesticides for a successful crop. They also require very little water and they can survive drought conditions as well as flooding. Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. Some bamboo species can even grow 1 meter a day.
Bamboo plants play a critical role in the balance of oxygen / carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Bamboo is the fastest growing canopy for the re-greening of degraded areas and generates more oxygen than an equivalent stand of trees. It lowers light intensity and protects against ultraviolet rays. It also works as an atmospheric and soil purifier.
Bamboo is versatile with a short growth cycle. There are over 1000 species of bamboo on the earth. The diversity makes bamboo adaptable to many environments. It can be harvested in 3-5 years versus 10-20 years for most softwoods. Bamboo tolerates extremes of precipitation, from 30-250 inches of annual rainfall.
Bamboo is a renewable resource that is abundantly available in many rural areas where economic development is limited. By researching and developing more ways to utilize bamboo, we can offer rural areas an opportunity to maintain their culture and lifestyle while lifting their economic situation. Economic studies have shown that by developing more usage for bamboo, we have the potential of providing income, food and housing to over 2.2 billion people worldwide.
Vashon Organics now offers 100% bamboo towels and bath robes. We are very happy to be supporting such a sustainable industry and love how soft they are too!
Click here to view our new bamboo products
Posted in: Sustainability Tags: bamboo
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September 26th, 2007 at 7:25 am
We want to feel like we are making choices that contribute to making our world better.
In the case of bamboo textiles, we’ve been duped.
Yes, bamboo as a plant, a raw product, is green, ecofriendly, and sustainable.
But as it turns out, bamboo textiles are made exactly the same way as rayon is made from other sources of cellulose.
The important thing to note here is that the manufacturing processes that produce bamboo fiber are decidedly NOT ecofriendly in the least. They involve some very unfriendly chemicals and emissions.
Furthermore, the textiles that are made from cellulose derived from bamboo are only different from standard rayon in the most miniscule of ways. There is essentially no difference between them. In the end, they can’t even be called bamboo any longer.
I’ve worn clothes made from “bamboo” fibers for at least 5 years. They are my favorites. But I can no longer promote them as having any benefits as compared to any other rayon just because the raw product was bamboo.
Another example of how the end product produced from bamboo is no different from the end product made from other sources is…paper.
It’s clear there is no difference between one product or another once they become pulp.
The eco message is strong. We want to grasp it close, to claim it.
But in this case what we are embracing is a kind of betrayal.
September 28th, 2007 at 7:51 am
Very thorough examination of the not so eco-friendly side of bamboo textiles.
http://organicclothing.blogs.com/