You May Want to Reconsider Bamboo Fabric and Bamboo Paper

Bamboo has become a hit as an ingredient in the sustainable living world. Bamboo is made into the softest, most luxurious fabric and is even used to make paper products like toilet paper. 

The arguments for bamboo fabric and paper products are that bamboo grows quickly with minimal inputs and could be a great way to offset our deforestation. Is it too good to be true, though?

I think there’s two main sides to this story. The impact of deforestation and the impact of toxic chemicals on both environmental and personal health. Let’s get into them.

The sustainability of bamboo

The chemically intensive nature of bamboo fabric and paper

Bamboo in moderation

Summary / TLDR

The sustainability of bamboo

Bamboo has risen in recent years as a promising, sustainable alternative to other materials in a variety of industries. Major ones I’m going to talk about here are fabric and paper production, but bamboo is even being considered for increased use in markets like building construction, which is pretty cool.

In some industries, bamboo makes sense. For instance, in construction, bamboo can pretty much be used as is or milled in such a way that requires very little chemical input, making it safe and effective. 

For an industry like fabric or paper production, bamboo is being considered as an alternative for things like soft wood, cotton, and plastic. Obviously, I’m a proponent for reducing our production and processing of plastic, given the harm it does to our environment and health. But what about comparing bamboo to trees and cotton.

The basic idea is that bamboo grows very fast with little inputs, no need for fertilizer, and is easy to harvest, compared to wood and cotton, which have varying needs for those inputs but are both significantly higher. Additionally, due to the concern of deforestation around the globe for all the various uses we have for wood as a raw material, that’s a crux of the argument. On the surface, bamboo does appear to be a great alternative to these more traditional materials. 

However, it’s not that simple. Is it ever?

The first thing we need to also consider is that bamboo can be exploited for monetary gain just like anything else. Though the idea is that bamboo can be grown in abundance and harvested for various products, replacing other forms of wood and reducing deforestation, there are a good number of native forests being cut down to plant bamboo farms.

I mean, of course there are, people can make money off of it. We all know money rules for most businesses/industries. 

Additionally, just because bamboo doesn’t require fertilizer doesn’t mean it isn’t being used to increase profits. The Chinese government has, per some reports, started fighting this a little more, which is great, but it’s still an issue. 

Beyond that, the fact that bamboo grows so fact can actually be a problem because it can be difficult to control. Add to that the fact that it’s being cultivated means that, even when native forests are not cleared, they’re in danger of being taken over by bamboo and dying anyway.

Another thing that’s been stated a lot is that bamboo may make a good carbon sink since it grows so fast. It makes sense that, just like any other tree, more bamboo would equal more carbon consumed and more oxygen produced. 

We don’t really know if this is true or not. One interesting piece of research actually found that a bamboo plant produced more carbon than it consumed. However, this was a study done with two bamboo plants and only at a specific point in time, which says nothing about the net production over the lifespan of the plant (especially considering an older plant produced less than the younger plant). So this doesn’t really tell us anything but it is interesting. 

So on the front of just pure, baseline sustainability: it’s definitely possible that even with these problems, bamboo is still a more sustainable option that wood, cotton, and plastic. In a perfect world, it definitely seems like it would be. We can’t completely ignore these issues though and there are a couple other points to consider as well.

The chemically intensive nature of bamboo fabric and paper

My main contention (and that of many others who have written on this topic) is the processing of bamboo post harvesting.

Bamboo has become popular in part because it promises not to have the VOCs inherent to petroleum products like polyester and the other plastics that a lot of our clothes are made with now. However, this is a little deceptive, given the chemicals that have to be applied to bamboo to make it soft.

Have you seen bamboo? Have you felt it? It’s rock hard. As I tend to say, you can’t take something that is fundamentally one way (hard, inflexible) and make it fundamentally another way (soft, flexible), without intensive processes, often chemical. This is the reality for bamboo. I mean, bamboo is most closely related to hardwood in physical properties. 

Another issue I take with the claims about the superiority of bamboo for fabric, specifically, is that most of the claims don’t hold water. Companies cite studies talking about how bamboo fabric has the capacity to block more UV or that it’s antibacterial properties help it combat odors. But the final bamboo product, due to its processing does not appear to have any of these benefits. The research just doesn’t support it.

Though there are some forms of bamboo fabric that are better than others, the vast majority of bamboo fabric is just bamboo sourced rayon, made from a process that utilizes dangerous chemicals that are bad for workers and the environment and produces a product that is no more sustainable or “good for you” than rayon is. It’s still rayon, a cellulose product, that physically and chemically is almost exactly like any other rayon from other sources, it’s just made from bamboo. Not inherently bad (though there are arguments for rayon being bad), but not necessarily good either. While companies market certain benefits of bamboo cloth, and admittedly it is very soft, the other benefits do not hold up in final form and the costs to personal health and the environment are arguably too high. 

The article I linked is an amazing review of this topic if you want to look at that, but here’s some basic information about the processing of bamboo for fabric. 

There are three main chemicals used to treat bamboo to create bamboo fabric: sodium hydroxide, carbon disulfide, and sulfuric acid. I won’t go into the actual process, but the article does. 

Sodium hydroxide and sulfuric acid are of concern but not the major problem. Sodium hydroxide is lye, or soap, which is used in traditional soap making. The problem with it is that when it’s not bound with an oil (like in soap applications), it’s corrosive and very irritating. Sulfuric acid is also corrosive and irritating. Both of these chemicals can cause potential problems for workers processing bamboo but shouldn’t necessarily cause problems to consumers. 

The major concern here is carbon disulfide, which is known to be highly toxic. As with the toxicity of anything, it can be difficult to draw exact lines on exposure levels and consequences. However, it appears that within 6 hours at relatively low concentrations, carbon disulfide is already acutely dangerous, acting on the central nervous system and causing problems. Now, you would have to have a very high exposure to drop dead from carbon disulfide exposure, but regular exposure to routine levels of carbon disulfide is dangerous. 

Additionally, carbon disulfide wreaks havoc on environmental systems, as most of it isn’t captured in processing and causes air and wastewater pollution, which destroys wildlife and just contributes to our increasing the toxicity of the earth.

So on an ethical level, I just can’t support bamboo fabric. I have bought it before. I stinking love bamboo footie pajamas. They’re so soft. But now that I know what I know, I can’t buy them, at least not new.

Though bamboo paper may be slightly less chemically intensive, it’s made through a similar process with similar chemicals and actually the Mamavation report we discussed in our previous post shows that most of the brands showing positive for PFAS were actually bamboo brands. All around, I just don’t recommend bamboo…

Bamboo in moderation

Though I’ve kind of ragged on the use of bamboo here a little bit, I think there are some very great and valid applications for bamboo. For instance, bamboo charcoal, construction material, kitchenware, flooring, and furniture. There’s probably more but that’s what I’m acquainted with.

I’ve discussed bamboo charcoal in depth before, so I won’t get into detail here. But this is an application where bamboo doesn’t have to go through an intensive chemical processing to reach its end goal and it is very effective. The other applications I mentioned just don’t have to be made soft and benefit from being close to their natural form, and even potentially have some advantages over traditional materials (like less susceptibility to pest!).

So not every application of bamboo is unsustainable or likely to contribute to toxicity. I just think we need to be careful with the fabric and paper applications and especially wary of the marketing around them. That’s really my biggest qualm with these products. 

Summary / TLDR

Bamboo is, on one hand, a promising alternative to source materials like wood, cotton, and plastic for a variety of applications across several industries. Bamboo grows fast with relatively little input and even has antibacterial properties. My favorite applications for bamboo are kitchenware and furniture. 

However, though bamboo fabric and paper products have grown in popularity in the last decade, they do not have the benefits of raw or minimally processed bamboo, and they are actually deceivingly unsustainable and toxic. 

To become bamboo fabric, appropriately known as rayon from bamboo or bamboo viscose, bamboo has to undergo intensive chemical processing with dangerous chemicals that can be harmful to workers and are certainly harmful to environmental systems. Overall, bamboo fabric is not a sustainable option and does more harm than sourcing good cotton would. 

Though bamboo paper requires somewhat less processing, it is still chemically intensive and not the best option.

My suggestion? Go for the bamboo cutting board and utensils, but steer clear of bamboo fabric and paper. If you absolutely have to have those bamboo footie pajamas, try to buy them used so you’re not contributing to this unsustainable and harmful practice. 

One potential, rising option for bamboo that’s processed more safely and sustainably is Lyocell, which is made and trademarked by a company called Tencell. I’m not going to get into that today, but you can check out this link for more information on that.

I hope you found this content helpful. If you enjoyed it and you want to see more like this, please consider subscribing to our newsletter and browsing our other articles.