Bamboo Sustainability

As children, we are taught to turn out the lights as we leave a room.  As adults, we are encouraged to buy high-efficiency appliances and to ride a bike to work.  We are taught these things because our fossil fuels are a finite resource that we may one day no longer have.  Bamboo, on the other hand, is a sustainable, renewable resource that we can use without wondering what negative impact we are leaving for future generations.

What is a renewable resource?

A renewable resource is a valuable substance that we can produce as fast as or faster than we use it.  Examples of renewable resources are solar energy, wind energy, wood, and oxygen.

How is bamboo a renewable resource?

1. Bamboo is a fast-growing plant.

Bamboo can grow more than four inches a day.  It reaches maturity and can be re-harvested every 3 years for the length of its life span of 500 years.  

2. Bamboo grows with little help.

Bamboo grows with one-third of the water used to grow cotton plants.  It doesn’t need irrigation or fertilizers, unlike cotton which uses about 25% of all insecticides and 12% of all pesticides to grow. 

3. Harvesting bamboo does not hurt the environment.

The root system is left intact when the bamboo plant is harvested, causing no soil erosion.  Cutting the bamboo is healthy for it, and it grows again from the same root system.  Bamboo technically has a negative carbon footprint because it removes more than 70% of carbon dioxide from the air and produces 35% more oxygen than a grove of trees of the same size.  

4. It is a valuable substance used for many commodities.

Every part of the plant is utilized when harvested.  Bamboo is used for construction, paper, musical instruments, bedding, clothing, food, medicine, furniture, and a wide variety of other things!  Bamboo could even be used to replace most wood products, plus it warps less in weather conditions.

Bamboo is a fantastic renewable resource that deserves to be well-known and more widely used.  It even surpasses the positive qualities of other renewable resources such as wood and cotton.  Simply Organic Bamboo is proud to support products that are better for our families’ futures.  When you purchase a set of our sheets, know that your purchase has positively impacted our world.