Hacker News Reader

Comment by m_eiman | Hacker News Reader

The list of uses is missing the best one: clothing!

Bamboo fabric is very soft and comfortable, if you haven't tried it yet you should!

Downside: it doesn't last as long as cotton, and takes a bit longer to dry after washing.

Be aware that the clothing isn't made of bamboo fibres in the way someone would expect, especially based on how it's advertised.

They are generally Viscose rayon but use bamboo as the cellulose source rather than wood. I think several companies have been fined/prosecuted/told off for misleading advertising.

Bamboo fabric is rayon, which is a semi-synthetic plastic. It's not at all clear this is good for the environment - according to this study, more than half the plastic microfibres in seawater are rayon:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141216212253.h...

It's also missing scaffolding. Bamboo is often used to make construction scaffolding in areas where it is abundant.

Also probably missing some uses in the existing categories e.g. pellet fuels (grasses, rice or wheat husks and papers are already pelletised so no reason why bamboo would not be). Though I guess the ash factor issue remains.

I can confirm on scaffolding. Having traveled in Asia a fair share, I have come across some interesting creations with bamboo scaffolding. It's incredible to see just how much the material can hold above itself without breaking.

Yes, I forgot to mention that in my other comment about bamboo in this thread. In India, bamboo scaffolding is or used to be (not checked lately) very commonly used on the outsides of buildings when they were being constructed. Tied together with ropes, in vertical and horizontal directions. The building workers stand / climb on them and do the building work.

It's so weird that this came up today because I was just reading all about this yesterday. I was looking into buying bamboo socks because it sounded like they'd be more sustainable, but as I did more research I found that the most common process to produce bamboo rayon/viscose involves a solution of toxic chemicals that mostly can't be reused, and that the material produced doesn't even retain the beneficial properties of bamboo.

There is also the closed-loop process that reuses most of the chemicals and that material is called lyocell (branded TENCEL®), but I don't think most people who purchase clothing with bamboo cloth know the difference and I believe it has to be expressly labeled as such.

idk if it is the best use, you need pretty nasty chemicals to make the fibers.

Interesting. I did a bit of reading about the process, and it seems like it doesn't have to be a problem - "bamboo cellulose is suitable for a closed-loop viscose process that captures all solvents used."

I wouldn't assume that all factories in China et al implement such a design and take worker safety into account, though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_textile

I just remembered that I have a kitchen table made of bamboo.. just the top surface, not the legs (which are made from ordinary wood). It's technically not a kitchen table, it was sold as an office desk, but it works very well as a kitchen table (and it had the exact right dimensions we needed, which is why we bought it). The surface is slightly rough, as it's made from long thing bands of bamboo fiber. All in all it's turned out to be a great table.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com