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Bamboo, Part II: What's so good about the stuff?

By Rain Noe - February 19, 2008

in Materials

Anyone know why bamboo is becoming so popular? As we've seen in Bamboo, Part I, it's a total bitch to process, so why not stick with wood?

The short answer is it's green, sustainable, strong, plentiful, and profitable. As it has been for a while--people have been using it for millenia to make furniture, weapons, tools, water-bearing systems, clothing from the fibers, and you can even eat the stuff (good source of low-calorie potassium, who knew).

The long answer of why bamboo is good is as follows:Green: It's the fastest-growing plant you can use to reforest an area, and it produces 35% more oxygen than an equally-sized batch of trees.

Sustainable: Unlike trees which need to be cut down, bamboo can be harvested without damaging the original plant, and it then regenerates in three to five years. None of this waiting-around-for-30-years for your reforestation project to kick in.

Strong: Harder than maple but lighter than oak, the tensile strength of bamboo is comparable to steel.

Plentiful: A stand of bamboo can generate around 200 poles in five years--the same length of time it takes one tree to grow big enough to cut down.

Profitable: Bamboo is essentially grass, and it grows way faster than trees--some varieites of bamboo can grow four feet in a day. For a lumber harvester, the yield can be 25 times what you'd get from regular ol' trees.

The chief threat to this wondrous and bountiful plant is the fearsome Panda bear, but environmentalists will be happy to know we've done a pretty good job of stamping those little buggers out.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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Jeffrey Matthias

16 years ago

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As a furniture designer, bamboo has its positives and negatives. Plyboo is only brand of manufactured panel material that I have found that is FSC certified AND low VOC (I believe they are converting ALL of their plants to NAF (no added formaldehyde) and urea free). There are two strong downsides: it is costly (though no more so than anything else, the cost is just in $ instead of damage to the environment and the workers' health) and it is very moisture susceptible. Here, in Colorado, we have to let it sit for week or two to see how it warps before can figure out what part of a $180 sheet we can use. Sealing it seems to help, once the piece is cut to size.
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krissy

16 years ago

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while i always hear the marvelous benefits of bamboo, which truly do run the gammet, i must say that i have a terrible time maintaining it in my yard. it DOES indeed grow quite fast, and it quickly can take over a yard. every spring, i cut down new growth because i lose more yard. i'm trying to find an environmentally friendly way of donating it, but i can't seem to find anything out there for this purpose. i'd love to hear ideas....
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Max Rockbin

16 years ago

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It's worth mentioning some of the negatives:
Bamboo varies hugely in quality. Younger bamboo is much softer, but much cheaper to produce (faster harvest cycle = more bamboo).
Bamboo is glued together with glues that are very often toxic. It's a Chinese product and not seriously regulated. Some Bamboo (i.e. Woven Strand process which has more glue in it) was banned in Europe because of excessive VOC (volatile organic compounds) released into homes - including formaldehyde.
Also, in some places, bamboo has become so over harvested, the indigenous population which relied on bamboo for their homes, their food, their tools and so on are being starved.
It ain't as pretty as it looks!
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Ben

16 years ago

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Bamboo is a wonderful building material and can be remarkably sustainable. I visited Hong Kong recently and was wildly impressed at the prevalence of bamboo scaffolding. The problem is, much of the bamboo that makes its way into our consumer goods was grown on clear-cut rainforest land. Know your source! Just because something can be grown sustainably, doesn't mean it is.
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