If our grandparents heard about carbon footprints, they probably would have been looking down at the carpet for tracks. Today we are looking at airplane tickets to the Midwest, and wondering how many trees need to be planted in order to give back what we are taking.
What are we taking? Where does what we take have an impact? What is the impact? It is hard to discern the equivalent of a planetary haircut from an organ donation. If you buy wood sourced from a forest in North Carolina, which is milled in Texas, and then trucked to the Northwest, is it more or less sustainable than sustainably harvested wood that comes via cargo ship from South America?
Much like the foods we eat, the building material scale between “guiltless” and “gourmet” shifts calorie by calorie. One man’s benefit is another’s bane.
Consider bamboo: It is primarily grown in China. It does not directly benefit our local economy, but it is rapidly renewable, reduces soil erosion, and absorbs five times the amount of carbon dioxide of most trees. It is a grass that can sometimes grow 3′ to 4′ a day. It is a cash crop with little regulation that would not likely meet organic standards in the United States. It is shipped across the sea on fuel-efficient boats, but processed on another continent and usually sealed with products from yet another continent. It is durable, versatile, inexpensive, and visually pleasing. It lacks the life expectancy of local hardwoods, and it is difficult to resurrect bamboo’s natural beauty if you need to refinish it.
Well, is bamboo good or a bad? It depends on the use. It depends on the expectations. It depends on the user. It depends on the product. It depends on so many things… But bamboo is everywhere! Bamboo is showing up in our utensils, our cutting boards, our flooring and our cabinets, our clothing, our towels, our gardens, and our recipes. Its sheer versatility and super-sustainable growth rate mean that it is not likely to go away anytime soon.
Sustainable Solutions?
Bamboo flooring is durably finished but resists being refinished. That’s because it is initially treated with an aluminum oxide tri-coat that frustrates contractors by dulling their refinishing equipment.
Bamboo flooring and cabinets are faster to show surface abrasion but less expensive to install and replace. Think of bamboo as a “15-year floor,” not a “50-year floor.”
Bamboo cutting boards are porous like their wood counterparts, but are more resistant to harboring bacteria (depending on the age and initial wear of both.) Bamboo cooking implements are much less likely to split or warp with exposure to moisture, won’t scratch your cookware, but won’t last as long as a metal equivalent.
As a fabric, bamboo is fully biodegradable. Towels become more absorbent with time and clean glass like a dream. In a Northwest garden, this plant is invasive; in a stir-fry, it’s delicious.
It’s hardy stuff: Bamboo needs little or no pesticides while growing, but factory workers are exposed to harmful stripping and bleaching chemicals while processing it. By contrast, cotton is one of the most chemically heavy crops on the market, but it can also be grown organically. Unlike cotton, bamboo cannot currently be organically grown.
When it comes to bamboo, or other products that claim to be “sustainable,” weigh your options and ask questions when you buy. Know the issues and your environmental priorities. It would be nice to paint the issue in black and white, but like many sustainability issues, there is no one easy answer. The answer is to become educated consumers and demand that retailers sell products they can stand behind. If you respect who you are buying from, you are not likely to be let down by your purchase or your seller. Intelligent questions and earnest concerns are our best assets: Use them to find the best answer for you. Maybe it is bamboo. And maybe it’s not.
