Monday, April 06, 2009

Bamboozled

A couple of months ago, it came to my attention that most (> 90 %) of those "made with bamboo fibre" clothing are labelling and advertising their products in a misleading manner.

Basically, the clothing is made of polyester. Polyester that is derived from a bamboo source. Thus, the clothing labels should read "made with polyester" and not "made with bamboo"

Apparently, the culprit were the textile manufacturers/suppliers who successfully duped everyone with a claim that was just plain wrong. Among the victims (apart from the consumers) were ethically minded retailers such as MEC and Lulu Lemon, who both positioned the polyesters as natural bamboo and environmentally friendly.

I was always a little wary of that bamboo clothing... I always imagined that bamboo clothing would be really coarse and scratchy - worse than hemp, maybe. But when I felt the smooth soft texture of the bamboo material, I was immediately suspicious that it was a little too smooth... a little too soft.

Anyway, this all irritates me a bit. It's like all those stupid bio-plastics - "biodegradable" plastic pens and cups and etc. Sure, they're biodegradable - under high O2 and UV light conditions... I say, if it won't mostly rot away within a year in my garden compost, it isn't biodegradable in the sense that the normal consumer understands.

-d

6 comments:

Steph said...

I have a pair of "bamboo" socks which supposedly helps to wick sweat. I find they work about as well as my normal cotton socks. Not much difference.

Dust said...

Yeah, they're basically the same as the other synthetic socks you can buy.

-d

Cammie said...

i only buy them for their soft and smoothness. haha, i don't care what they're made of.

Simon said...

I was also confused by Bamboo clothing. I didn't understand how you could make fabric out of a tree. That's like saying you have paper clothing.

Dust said...

More like calling ethanol "corn"

ehbaba said...

FYI - most "biodegradable" plastics aren't biodegradable at all. Most of them break down into little pieces. The manufacturers describe this process as biodegradation. It's actually way worse than regular plastic products because the little pieces hang around (just like regular plastic) and can't be sifted out of garbage piles.