Bamboo fiber has excellent color absorption, fast-drying capabilities, and is known for draping elegantly from the body and feeling as soft as cashmere. Unlike silk, bamboo is wrinkle-resistant and can easily be tossed into a washer and dryer, making it much simpler to take care of. In addition to these fantastic fashion-friendly qualities, the use of bamboo in clothing also has many environmental advantages to offer.
Bamboo is a Renewable Resource
Anyone who's ever planted bamboo, a member of the grass family, knows that it grows like… well, bamboo. There's no stopping it. Bamboo fiber is make from the refined pulp of the bamboo plant.
The plant thrives naturally, totally unassisted, without the use of any pesticides or fertilizer, is totally biodegradable, and is the fastest growing plant in the world, shooting up a yard or more in a day, growing to its maximum height in roughly three months, and reaching maturity after only three or four years. Bamboo spreads rapidly (like a weed) across large areas, and because of this, is known to improve soil quality in degraded and eroded landscapes.
Bamboo Fabric Wicks Away Moisture
The reason that bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world is because of its extraordinary water absorbency potential. This property comes in handy in the fashion world, making bamboo fabric three to four times more absorbent than cotton. Bamboo fiber wicks away moisture from the skin, allowing it to evaporate, keeping the wearer naturally drier and more comfortable.
Bamboo Clothing is Comfortable
Fabric made from bamboo is extremely soft, smooth, and luxuriously comfortable. As if that wasn't enough to have fashionistas everywhere clearing room in their closets for bamboo clothes, you'll be tickled pink to learn that bamboo fabric is also highly breathable in hot weather and also keeps you noticeably warmer when the weather gets cold, producing a lovely "air-conditioned clothing" effect.
Antibacterial, Hypoallergenic Bamboo Clothing
Wait, there's more. Bamboo fiber is naturally antibacterial, killing almost all bacteria; this means clothing will stay fresher and odor free longer, and is generally more hygienic and healthier for the lucky wearer.
Bamboo clothing is especially suited for anyone with sensitive or allergy-prone skin, thanks to its antibacterial properties, and since it isn't treated with harsh chemicals. The fiber itself is also round and smooth, which makes it a non-irritant.
Tensile Strength & Sun Protection
But don't mistake bamboo's softness for weakness; repeated tests of bamboo demonstrate that the fiber has a high abrasion-proof capacity and tenacity. Bamboo clothing can also function as sun block, blocking out 98 percent of UV activity.
The Not-So-Green Side of Bamboo Fiber
Those are the green pros of using bamboo fiber as clothing. It's worth noting that the grassy plant has come under fire by some environmental critics who claim that the production process used to transform bamboo pulp into silky fiber isn't quite so eco-savvy.
Critics such as Michael Lackman of LotusOrganics.com say that this process usually employs heavy chemicals, some of which are toxic. Lackman says there are two ways of manufacturing bamboo fiber: mechanically or chemically. In the mechanical – eco-friendly – mode, the plant is physically crushed and natural enzymes are used to break the bamboo walls into a mushy mass so that the natural fibers can be mechanically combed out and spun into yarn. In the chemical, more cost-effective, less labor-intensive, and extremely un-environmentally friendly method, a process of hydrolysis-alkalization and multi-phase bleaching refines bamboo pulp from the plant, which is then processed into fiber.
In his blog post on the topic, Lackman notes that newer manufacturing facilities have begun using other technologies to chemically manufacture bamboo fiber that are more benign and eco-friendly, so that the world's (potentially) most renewable resource can be utilized more sustainably as clothing.
According National Geographic's Green Guide, despite the environmental shortcomings in fabric production, bamboo is still has a much lighter environmental impact than pesticide-laden conventional cotton and petroleum-derived nylon and polyester synthetics.
Encourage Eco Safe Bamboo Fiber Production
To support and encourage environmentally friendly facilities and practices in the manufacture of bamboo fabric, verify that your bamboo clothing has been certified by a professional certification group such as the ÖKO-TEK STANDARD 100, which ensures that chemicals used in the production do not have any negative effects on human health and the environment.
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