Bamboo textile is any cloth, yarn or clothing made from bamboo fibres.

Modern clothing illegally labeled as being made from bamboo is usually viscose rayon, a regenerated cellulose fibre using wood pulp as its raw material. This process removes the natural characteristics of the raw material, rendering it identical to rayon from other cellulose sources. The vast majority of bamboo textile sold is actually viscose rayon, not bamboo, with no bamboo characteristics at all. It is impossible to determine from what type of raw material a viscose rayon sample is made.

Types

Bamboo fibres are all cellulose fibre extracted or fabricated from natural bamboo, but they vary widely.

Textiles labelled as being made from bamboo are usually not made by mechanical crushing and retting of bamboo, but by using bamboo chips as raw material for rayon. Bamboo is also used whole and in strips; these strips may be considered stiff fibers.

Stiff strips

Bamboo can be cut into thin strips and used for basketry.

In China and Japan, thin strips of bamboo were woven together into hats and shoes. One particular design of bamboo hats was associated with rural life, worn mostly by farmers and fishermen for protection from the sun.

In the West, bamboo, alongside other components such as whalebone and steel wire, was sometimes used as a structural component in corsets, bustles and other types of structural elements of fashionable women's dresses.

Mechanically produced fine bamboo fiber

Some bamboo fibre is made by a mechanical-bacterial process similar to retting flax into linen fibre. In this way, the woody part of the bamboo is crushed mechanically before an enzyme-retting and washing process is used to break down the walls and extract the fibre. The natural enzyme comes from pre-existing microorganisms on the bamboo. The same manufacturing process is used to produce linen fabric from flax or hemp. Bamboo fabric made from this process is sometimes called bamboo linen. The natural processing of bamboo allows the fibre to remain strong and produce a high quality product. This process gives a material that is very durable, as the mechanically produced bamboo linen retains more of bamboo’s natural texture and strength compared to chemically processed alternatives.

Bamboo rayon

Advertising standards

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ruled that unless a yarn is made directly with bamboo fibre – often called "mechanically processed bamboo" – it must be called "rayon" or "rayon made from bamboo". The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) noted that the manufacturing process further purifies the cellulose, alters the physical form of the fibre, and modifies the molecular orientation within the fibre and its degree of polymerization. The end product is still cellulose, and is functionally identical to rayon made from cellulose from other plant sources. The USA's Federal Trade Commission has charged companies with false antimicrobial claims when the fibre has been made with rayon.

odapoovu

Another means of extracting fibre from bamboo, and probably the only purely mechanical process of extraction anywhere in the world, is practiced in the days preceding the annual festival of the Kottiyur Temple of Kerala, India. The handcrafted bamboo artifact, known locally as "odapoovu" is in the form of a tuft of white fibres of up to in length. The article is made out of newly emerging Ochlandra travancorica culms, which go through a process of alternating pounding with stones and retting in water lasting several days, followed by a combing to remove the pith, leaving the cream white fibres and a stub of the bamboo. The fibre is too coarse (and the process too cumbersome) to be of much use in making fine yarn, thread or textiles.

Bamboo composite and biopolymer construction

There are various approaches to the use of bamboo in composites and as an additive in biopolymers for construction. In this case, bamboo fibres are extracted through retting or through a steam process where bamboo is injected with steam and placed under pressure and then exposed to the atmosphere, where steam release allows for the collection of fibre.

Ecological considerations

Growth

Bamboo has many advantages over cotton as a raw material for textiles. Reaching up to tall, bamboo is the largest member of the grass family. They are the fastest growing woody plant in the world. One Japanese species has been recorded as growing over a day. There are over 1,600 species found in diverse climates from cold mountains to hot tropical regions. About of the Earth is covered with bamboo, mostly in Asia.

The bamboo species used for rayon manufacture is called moso bamboo, or just moso. Moso bamboo is the most important bamboo in China, where it covers about – about two percent of China's forest area. It is the main species for bamboo timber and is said to play an important ecological role.

Harvesting

Once a new shoot emerges from the ground, the new cane will reach its full height in just eight to ten weeks. Each cane reaches maturity in three to five years. It is a grass and so regenerates after being cut just like a lawn without the need for replanting. This regular harvesting stimulates the plant, to regrow at a higher rate and to produce younger, and therefore healthier, faster growing shoots. This is comparable to many cultivated plants, especially trees and bushes as well known examples. This is comparable to pruning. Studies have shown that felling of canes leads to vigorous re-growth and an increase in the amount of biomass the next year.

Yield and land use

Bamboo can be used as food, fibre and shelter and due to its ease of growth and extraordinary growth rate it is a cheap, sustainable and efficient crop. Bamboo grows very densely; its clumping nature enables a lot of it to be grown in a comparatively small area, easing pressure on land use. With average yields for bamboo of up to greatly exceeding the average yields of for most trees, and for cotton, bamboo's high yield per hectare becomes very significant.

Greenhouse gases

All plants fix carbon dioxide (), but deforestation results in fewer trees to fix rising quantities of . Because it is fast-growing, bamboo fixes more and generates up to 35 percent more oxygen than similar stands of trees. A bamboo plantation sequesters of carbon dioxide per year, as compared to for a young forest . This only remains fixed if the resulting product is not burned and is allowed to naturally decompose at the end of its lifespan. A typical forest covering the same area can persist more biomass in the long term while also providing a more diverse biotope; however, this effect is only observed over longer time scales due to the comparatively slow growth rate of trees. Harvesting bamboo also requires less deforestation compared to harvesting a similar mass of other cellulose-producing crops, which ultimately results in less CO2 emissions.

Deforestation

Bamboo planting can slow deforestation, providing an alternative source of timber for the construction industry and cellulose pulp for the textile industry. It allows communities to turn away from the destruction of native forests and construct commercial bamboo plantations that can be selectively harvested annually without the destruction of the grove. Tree plantations have to be chopped down and terminated at harvest but bamboo keeps on growing.

On the other hand forest has been cleared to make way for bamboo plantations.

Water use

Bamboo uses considerable water, but there is evidence that its water-use efficiency (relative to growth) may be greater than many trees.

Soil erosion

Yearly replanting of tillage crops increases soil erosion. The extensive root system of bamboo and the fact that it is not uprooted during harvesting means bamboo cultivation is associated with less soil erosion. The bamboo plant's root system can hold soil together along river banks, deforested areas and in places prone to mudslides. Like forest trees, it also greatly reduces rain run-off.

Biodegradability

Like other cellulose-based clothing materials, bamboo fibre is biodegradable in soil by microorganisms and sunlight. Having reached the end of its useful life, clothing made from bamboo can be composted and disposed of in an organic and environmentally friendly manner.

Pesticides and fertilizers

There is no need for pesticides or fertilizers when growing bamboo, but herbicide and fertilizer applications are common in some places to encourage edible shoot growth. Bamboo also contains a substance called bamboo-kun–an antimicrobial agent that gives the plant a natural resistance to pest and fungi infestation, though some pathogen problems exist in some bamboo plantations.

References