From the 11/11/09 online Wall Steet Journal. I added the emphases.
Picking Apart Bamboo Couture
Christina Binkley
"Slinky, soft bamboo fabric has made its way into my wardrobe in the
form of a number of buttery shirts and dresses. When I came across the
eco-label Viridis Luxe, it wasn't Uma Thurman and Laura Dern's
patronage of the brand that attracted me. It was the clothes' luxurious
feel and comfortable styling.
"Indeed, bamboo has had the most success among all the new 'eco-textiles' on store shelves—fabric billed as environmentally
friendly and made from materials such as soybeans, corn, milk, seaweed
and recycled plastic. Bamboo shows up in clothes sold in Nordstrom and
Saks Fifth Avenue, as well as sheets sold at Target, and it bears such
deluxe labels as Ermenegildo Zegna, Rag & Bone and Ralph Lauren, as
well as more eco-focused brands. Because it is so exotically soft,
bamboo is often marketed alongside luxury fibers like silk and cashmere.
"Bamboo's story sounds clear and appealing: like hemp, the plant grows
quickly without the irrigation, pesticides or fertilizer often used to
grow cotton. It's often sold as 'biodegradable,' and the plant's
antimicrobial properties have been used to market athletic clothes made
from the fiber. 'People are switching from cotton to bamboo,' says
Aarti Doshi, regional manager for bamboo-fabric distributor Doshi
Group, based in Mumbai, India.
When I looked below the surface, though, I found that bamboo fabric
is less 'eco' and 'sustainable' than it seems. The bamboo used in
textiles has to be heavily manipulated to go from stem to store. To
create fabric, it's chopped up and dissolved in toxic solvents—the same
process that recycles wood scraps into viscose or rayon. Indeed, bamboo
fabric technically is rayon.
"The Federal Trade Commission sued four small bamboo-clothing
manufacturers in August, citing them for false labeling, among other
concerns, under the 1958 Textile Fiber Products Identification Act. The
companies had used language such as 'natural,' 'biodegradable,' and 'antimicrobial.' But bamboo fabric isn't natural, the FTC said, since
it's a textile developed by chemists. The agency also said the
biodegradable and antimicrobial qualities of the plant don't survive
the manufacturing process.
"In a bulletin titled 'Have You Been Bamboozled by Bamboo Fabrics?'
the FTC said that bamboo fabrics 'are made using toxic chemicals in a
process that releases pollutants into the air.'
" 'The FTC's four cases are close to being settled without penalties,
but with the requirement that fabric be labeled as viscose or rayon,
and without the claims about biodegradability and antimicrobial
properties,' says FTC staff attorney Korin Ewing.
"Of course, rayon doesn't have the same all-natural ring as bamboo.
Salvatore Giardina, a designer and adjunct professor in textile
development and marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New
York, says he works with hemp and linen but stopped using bamboo
several years ago after a manufacturer told him it should be labeled as
viscose. 'I manufacture a very high-end product—there's no way I can
put on my label 100% viscose,' he says.
"Bonnie Siefers, founder and designer of Jonäno, one of the apparel
makers sued by the FTC, says she has stopped marketing her bamboo line
as biodegradable or antimicrobial. She is also working with newer
fabrics made from corn sugars—which technically make something like
polyester, but without the petroleum base.
"But a quick search on the Web shows hundreds of apparel makers still
market bamboo fabrics as eco-friendly. Ms. Ewing notes they probably
have good intentions. 'We have to be sure that sellers do their
homework,' she says. Most bamboo is grown in China, where it's harder
for U.S designers to monitor suppliers.
"Of course, bamboo doesn't have to be processed heavily—witness the
many home items, from furniture to flooring, on the market—to be used
in products.
"But some wearers have other gripes about bamboo. Mr. Giardina, the
FIT professor, says he found that bamboo fabric is unstable and likely
to stretch out of shape in damp weather. Uniform Knitters Ltd., a Hong
Kong apparel manufacturer, abandoned bamboo fabrics because they tend
to shrink and have odd variances in color, according to a company
spokeswoman.
"My bamboo clothes also proved somewhat unstable. After a few washes,
tiny holes began to appear randomly in my new bamboo wardrobe. Hala
Bahmet, the designer of Viridis Luxe, says the holes were the fault of
too-thin yarn.
" 'Brands—us included—cranked out these delectable, lightweight,
creamy garments that don't have the durability,' she says. She now adds
organic cotton to her clothes to improve durability, and she labels
them 'viscose from bamboo.' She has had better success mixing hemp and
cashmere in her sweaters, which are gorgeous.
"Ms. Bahmet says she hopes the FTC concerns lead to research on
better bamboo production, because it doesn't involve diverting an
important food source such as corn to fabric production. She is
optimistic that the FTC action will encourage scientists to research
truly eco-friendly production methods for bamboo.
" 'Bamboo is just in its infancy as a fiber,' she says. 'It's not even a teenager yet.' "
First cashmere, now bamboo; and we all know that cotton is heavily pesticide/fertilizer/irrigation-dependent. Perhaps the only truly safe, ecologically friendly fiber is good old wool...
