Bamboo: Draws and Drawbacks

Bamboo is a perennial woody grass plant that grows more quickly than many other types of plants or building materials. It grows in warm, humid climates, especially in southern Asia, but can also be grown in the United States. It is a versatile building material that has many benefits. It is renewable. It grows quickly by reproducing cloned buds on the rhizome (underground stem).

bamboo’s intrinsic properties

In addition to being renewable, it is a durable building material. Bamboo is at least twice as strong as timber. In terms of tensile strength, it is stronger than steel. No wonder it is used for construction. It was used for some of the earliest suspension bridges.

Bamboo is low maintenance. Once planted, it pretty much takes care of itself. It can grow in many types of soils and climates. Bamboo appreciates a little mulch and water occasionally. The best time to do this is early spring when the bamboo is growing the most.

Bamboo is antibacterial. Antibacterial agents are found in the plant’s lignin. Lignin is an organic polymer found in the plant’s cellular walls. Although bamboo is naturally antibacterial, highly processed products made from bamboo, such as clothing, do not necessarily retain the antibacterial properties.

the disadvantages of bamboo

Although bamboo has these many benefits, it also has some drawbacks. One of the drawbacks is that bamboo can be invasive. Because it grows so fast, it takes over other plants by building a very dense wall. Its root system can also crowd out the roots of other plants. If you plant bamboo in your yard, you must be careful of it taking over the yard. For this reason, certain varieties of bamboo are considered invasive in several states.

Another drawback is that bamboo can be expensive. This is because the production process can be complicated, involving several steps. Only 30% of the bamboo plant can be used. Bamboo is in shorter supply than traditional building materials like wood. Its density means that shipping costs for bamboo can be expensive.

Bamboo is difficult to harvest. Only 20% or 25% of the bamboo can be harvested each year. It is not always easy to tell which bamboo poles are ready to harvest without marking them. For this reason, it is generally not possible to harvest the poles with heavy equipment because some poles would be taken down that are not ready to be harvested, so the harvesting is often done by hand.

how bamboo’s processed

Another problem with bamboo is that it is often chemically processed. To turn bamboo into clothing, for example, plant fibers are dissolved in sodium hydroxide (also known as lye) and carbon disulfide. The dissolved fibers are then pressed through small holes into sulfuric acid, which congeals the fibers and turns them into a component of fabric. At this point, eco-friendly qualities of bamboo such as its antibacterial quality have been destroyed. Those bamboo sheets and clothes may not be as natural as you were led to believe.

bamboo’s continued sustainability

Despite these drawbacks, bamboo has hundreds of uses. It has been widely used in construction. Bamboo flooring is a popular and stylish use. Bamboo can be made into fabric, as has been stated, such as for bedding, clothing, and mattresses. In many parts of the world, young bamboo is even used as a food. In this use, it retains nutritional properties. Bamboo contains potassium, calcium, manganese, zinc, chromium, copper, iron, and thiamine. Bamboo can also be used in the manufacture of dinnerware and bathroom essentials, including toothbrushes, toilet brushes, toiler paper, bathmats, vanity sets, wastebaskets, and shower benches, to name a few.

For the positive reasons stated above, and despite the negative ones, bamboo has been widely used for many centuries. It has literally hundreds of uses. The sustainability of bamboo virtually guarantees that it will be a much-used material for a long time to come.