Is Bamboo Clothing Truly Green?
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 09.26.07
Very, very little bamboo clothing would qualify as sustainable or organic clothes.
This is the view of Lotus Organics, who in their usual full and frank style have investigated the industry and presented their finding on their informative Organic Clothing Blog. It is always a great read for anyone with an interest in the greening of the rag trade. None more so than their current peek at bamboo.
Michael Lackman of Lotus concludes, “The growing of bamboo is environmentally friendly but the manufacturing of bamboo into fabric raises environmental and health concerns because of the strong chemical solvents used to cook the bamboo plant into a viscose solution that is then reconstructed into cellulose fiber for weaving into yarn for fabric.”
We also admire them for bravely pointing out that the ISO 140001 and Oeko-Tex standards, while useful in their spheres of influence (management and human health respectively) do not, on their own, indicate sustainable textile practices. ::Organic Clothing Blog via a tip from Michael.
Not first time that eco-ness of bamboo has been under the microscope here. Lloyd was considering its appropriateness for flooring years ago.
Is this a case of bamboo can't be sustainably produced or that it just isn't being produced in a sustainable manner? Does this only apply to bamboo textiles or are the same methods used to create commonly available wood products (bowls, kitchenware, etc.) that are made from bamboo?
Bamboo seems like the perfect solution, but I've read that it can be considered unsustainable because more farmers are cutting down naturally bio-diverse forests to grow bamboo to get a piece of the action ($$$). This affects habitat for both flora and fauna. But it is sustainable in that this grass grows quickly and is rapidly renewable.
Look at the transportation of bamboo, it almost all comes from china or far overseas. I believe that the GHG emissions alone defeat the "rapid-renewable" carbon sequestration properties of bamboo by far.
The environmental impacts of clothing through washing and drying has by far the largest effect on the environment when looking at an LCA of the clothing.
On top of that it was found that a hybrid of cotton and polyester was actually less damaging on the environment because of the low amount of energy it takes to dry the clothing.
"Green" design is not as simple as choosing a "green" material.
No its not green. Treehugger answered this back at
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/09/bamboo_flooring.php
Way too many problems.
john at
www.woodentoy.com
Bamboo for kitchenware is produced by a very different process to that used for clothing, Liz. In the former steaming is most often used to make the material more malleable, while for clothing a fibre is obtained via dissolving the material in a solvent. For flooring a combination of heat processes and adhesive bonding are employed.
And yes, PDQ1966, as we have noted many times, on these pixels, laundering has the highest environmental impact in the life cycle of most apparel.
Course the problem with a cotton/polyester hybrid pdq1966 is that you are taking a biodegradable material and a non biodegradable yet recyclable material and weaving them together to make a monstrous hybrid. How do you recycle it? You have to take the two materials apart to upcycle them properly.
You are right in saying "green" design is not as simple as choosing a "green" material. You need to think about the smartest way to use a material for for safe return to the soil or infinite recycling.
The problem isn't bamboo, it's how we are using it.
When we first looked at making sportswear from bamboo, we ran into alot of these sustainability issues. We did however, find that bamboo charcoal embedded in recycled polyester made for a much more sustainable piece of high performance apparel. So there are some uses of bamboo that can be sustainable.
I'm a textile engineer and have been telling people this for years. No one realizes that this type of bamboo fabric is nothing more than rayon made using bamboo as the source of cellulose. The only advantage it has is in the growing of the bamboo, all the other chemical ickyness is the same.
I believe the idea behind bamboo textiles is a good one, as it can be grown locally and doesn't require pesticides, unlike cotton. However the process of which bamboo must go through in order to become yarn needs work. Otherwise we might as well buy cotton, and isn't the point of bamboo to shift away from cotton?
OK so bamboo is green but the process of getting it to yarn stage isnt. Whats the solution? Is there an eco way of making this readily available/replaceable plant a viable as a wearable fabric?
Re: drying, it is beyond me why anyone would need a dryer unless they live near to the Poles. And woe to anyone that has one AND central heating!