It requires no pesticides to grow, and because it grows quickly, bamboo forests can be replenished in less time than it takes other crops to grow. But when bamboo fabric hit the market a couple years ago, many people wondered how such a stiff plant could be turned into a soft, silky textile.
Turns out that’s a really good question.
An expensive chemical process that emits pollutants turns bamboo into rayon. Photo By iheartlinen/Courtesy Flickr.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced last month that clothing and other textiles labeled as bamboo are actually made of rayon. To turn bamboo into a fiber, the plant must go through the same chemical process used to make rayon. The bamboo is treated with toxic chemicals that emit hazardous air pollutants, and the end result is a manufactured fabric with none of the plant’s original traits left. So, even though the label on your sheets and shirts may say bamboo, they’re actually made of rayon.
The FTC has already charged four companies with falsely labeling and advertising their clothing and textile products as made of bamboo. Sami Designs (Jonäno), CSE (Mad Mod) and Pure Bamboo have settled with the FTC and agreed to stop making the false claims, but The M Group (Bamboosa) has so far refused to settle.
In a letter to Kevin Tuerff, blogger and CEO of Green Canary Sustainability Consulting, The M Group principal Morris Saintsing wrote, “With our upstream suppliers calling it ‘bamboo fiber,’ how would we know they were using the wrong terminology? The fiber is ‘rayon from bamboo’ or ‘viscose from bamboo’. So, it is a ‘fiber from bamboo’ but not ‘bamboo fiber.’ That’s a pretty fine line.”
The FTC is now requiring companies to provide reliable evidence, such as scientific tests and analyses, to show that their products are made of actual bamboo fiber. The FTC has put out alerts for both consumers and suppliers. To file a complaint or get more information, visit the FTC’s website.
by Robyn Griggs Lawrence, Editor-in-Chief
Natural Home magazine is a premier resource for sustainable home design and materials, earth-friendly décor and natural living.
Doug B. says:
There is a lot more too this issue than meets the eye. For starters, I believe...any objective, intelligent person would have to ask themselves - Is this really the title of a document that was put out by my government?
"Have You Been Bamboozled by Bamboo Fabrics?"
It sure reads like a advertising/marketing campaign that one might expect to see put out by a competitor of bamboo fabric.
I have written extensively on this issue, so I won't try to reiterate everything that I have already stated.
If anyone is interested in really learning about this issue, you can do that here:
http://blog.greenearthbamboo.com/archives/129
Faerie's Dance says:
It should be pointed out that bamboo can be processed like traditional rayon to create the viscose OR like Tencel to create the viscose. Tencel has won awards in Europe for being an eco-friendly alternative process to the chemicals used in rayon. So you'd actually have to know how the bamboo was processed before you could claim it was green washing. It may really be all that.
Doug B. says:
Yes, Tencel is generally perceived as having an eco-friendly manufacturing process, but some people will point too it using a substantial amount of energy and the solvent used, as a by-product of petrol production. Frankly, I have not done enough research on Tencel, to make any intelligent remarks about its "green" factor.
There will always be a certain segment of the population that will pick on some part of the pre-finished product, as being hurtful to the environment, or "non-green".
I would suggest that those people...purchase their textile products from a thrift shop, or wear that % of their clothing that is sitting in the closet...not being worn.
Until we get some non-biased, major players...to do some carbon footprint analysis, or lifecycle assessments on the various available textile products, it is difficult to make comparisons, with regard to the "greeness" of this product or that product - Even for those of us that are in the business.