Member Comments

Responsible for 25% of the world's pesticide use! Water useage amounting to 1,200 litres or more for every kilogram of finished fibre!

These statistics apply to COTTON!

So how about a more balanced appraisal of bamboo and its comparatively benign environmental impact, instead of regurgitating the biased US FTC statement that the Consumer 'report' is based on?

http://www.swicofil.com/viscose.html

This website provides an informative non-bias description of the manufacturing process of rayon/viscose and its properties. It's been around for ages and the whole bamboo scam seems to just be an attempt to sell something old under a new name.

Thank you for exposing this one about Bamboo fabric. I am one of those who thought I was buying something eco-friendly (in its entire production process) but had no idea about the chemicals needed to produce this.
I did wonder though what the "anti-bacterial" claim meant and how the bamboo clothing and towels I've bought could have this property or retain it after washes.

Your article tells us that clothing labelled as Bamboo should actually be labelled as Rayon made from bamboo, but tells us nothing that helps us decide whether Rayon is something that should be avoided. Your article says that Rayon is manufactured from bamboo using "chemicals" but this leaves us none the wiser because everything in the world is made from chemicals. To form an opinion we need to know what the chemicals used in the manufacture of bamboo into rayon are and why they might be undesirable.

I'm usually a pretty cynical consumer so I'm disappointed that I fell for this one. I thought I may have finally found a comfortable, affordable fabric that I would enjoy wearing and know was not harming the planet.

Too good to be true? YEP!

:(

First of all I had no idea rayon was derived from cellulose, hands up who did? I had always thought of it as a type of polyester. Secondly, perhaps I reaffirmed rather than learned, spin is everywhere. As a consumer I like to imagine that I have some ability to see through the marketing but this one caught me out. I was aware that bamboo requires substantial processing to produce a soft fabric but had not clicked that the end product was rayon. Of course in terms of environmental impact this may be minuscule compared to the chemical impact of the cotton industry. It would be nice if there was an independent review but it appears no-one is without bias.

For a while now I have been considering buying bamboo nappies - I felt them at a parent's show and they are so soft. Now I am thinking again! Do you have any information about Totsbots Bamboozle nappies?