Benefits of Bamboo

Bamboo is an environmentally sustainable product and today, heightened consumer environmental awareness has given interest in bamboo materials such as flooring and benchtops and other items, a huge boost as consumers seek to care for the environment further.

Bamboo is botanically classified as a grass and may be the most sustainable, natural resource the world has.

Benefits of bamboo in the environment:

• Bamboo is a fast growing grass and can be harvested in 4 or 5 years, comparable to hardwoods in 30-40 years.
• On the same area of land there is twenty times the yield of bamboo compared with timber;
• The bamboo rhizome root system is continually sprouting new growth and new shoots after harvesting which makes replanting after harvesting unnecessary as the roots are left intact – also preventing soil erosion;
• Bamboo does not require fertilizers, pesticides or much water;
• Bamboo is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal (therefore does not require fungicides etc to be sprayed. This benefits the community and farm workers as well as the environment)
• Bamboo reduces greenhouse gases as bamboo plants absorb two-thirds more carbon dioxide and produce 35% more oxygen than the same amount of trees;
• Bamboo is 100% bio degradable;
• Bamboo is termite and rot resistant;

“Bamboo’s environmental benefits arise largely out of its ability to grow quickly – in some cases 3-4 feet a day – without the need for fertilisers, pesticides or much water. Bamboo also spreads easily with little or no care. In addition, a bamboo grove also releases some 35 percent more oxygen into the air than a similar-sized stand of trees, and it matures (and can be replanted) within seven years (compared to 30-50 years for a stand of trees), helping to improve soil conditions and prevent erosion along the way. Bamboo is so fast-growing that it can yield 20 times more timber than trees on the same area.

Quoted from EarthTalk – produced by The Environmental Magazine.