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Bambooee: Reusable, Cleanable Paper Towels Made from Bamboo

Better for the environment in the long run?

By Rain Noe - March 6, 2018

in Materials

I try to be a conscientious consumer, but one single-use item that I go through a lot of is paper towels. I find them indispensable for cleaning up my kitchen, shop and photography studio, I order them in bulk from Staples, and it depresses me how many of them I throw away.

Is there an alternative? I'm wondering if these cleanable, re-usable paper towels made from bamboo would cut it:

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Recognize the high-energy pitch man? That's the inventor, Noam Krasniansky, who appeared on "Shark Tank" with wife, Irene, who prompted him to invent them:

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A couple of considerations not mentioned in the videos:

The UX

These Bambooee sheets come on a roll--which is only convenient the first time you use them. After you tear them off and wash them, you've now got loose sheets. You'd need some designated place to stack these, given that each sheet can be re-washed, according to the company, 100 times.

These are machine-washable and need to be line-dried. It's a bit more work, but I think I'd be willing to put it in.

The Environment

The sheets are "rayon made from an organic bamboo source." While the bamboo it's made from is organically grown in China, the company admits that the sheets are not biodegradable. They are, they say, currently working on a compostable version that "should be available soon."

So the question is, does the energy/water spent in washing them and the fact that they're not biodegradable offset the benefit of not throwing them out as often as paper towels? The answer is not clear and would require some calculations. Further complication the answer is the fact that the company plants trees, reportedly at a rate of one per roll sold.

Conclusion

They're selling a 20-sheet roll plus eight Swiffer-compatible sheets for $16. I think I might roll the dice on these out of sheer curiosity.

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Tom Wilson

6 years ago

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You can wash and reuse a cotton cloth that is biodegradable...

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- Sean Thackston
  
  Tom Wilson
  
  6 years ago
  
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  Yeah, I'm not really sure how this is better than any old washrag.
  
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  - Juan Cano
    
    Sean Thackston
    
    6 years ago
    
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    But they're made out of bamboo!!!!!!! That's just so hip and cool!
    
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Tom Wilson

6 years ago

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In 2010, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued letters informing over 100 companies that they were mislabeling products made of rayon as being made from bamboo, deceiving environmentally conscious consumers. https://www.aol.com/2010/02/03/bamboo-zled-ftc-says-retailers-fibbed-about-bamboo-product-clai/

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