5 reasons to choose bamboo

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Merryn Chilcott, Garment Technologist & Product Developer at BAM clothing, gives us her five reasons to choose bamboo fabric for clothing!

1. Nature’s best performance fabric

First and foremost, bamboo is just so comfortable to wear. The fabric is luxuriously soft and feels amazing next to even the most sensitive skin.

Bamboo viscose is also three times more absorbent than cotton. Because it absorbs moisture away from your skin, you feel dry and comfortable. It is also naturally temperature controlling, keeping you warm when it’s cool and cool when it’s warm.

2. Stays fresh longer

Bacteria that makes your clothing smell. But because moisture doesn’t sit on the surface of the bamboo fabric – as it does with synthetic fabrics – air can’t get to the odour-causing bacteria. 

And – because bamboo stays fresh for longer, it needs less washing. The way we do laundry has a huge ecological effect, and cutting back on washing (and particularly tumble drying) drastically reduces the carbon footprint of your clothing.

3. A positive for the environment

Bamboo helps clean the air we breathe. Bamboo grass absorbs five time more CO2 from the air than the equivalent amount of hardwood trees. Not only that, but two thirds of the carbon is stored in the soil and root system which – unlike trees and cotton – isn’t dug up when the bamboo is harvested so the carbon stays in the ground. Bamboo also releases 35% more oxygen than its hardwood tree equivalent. And – it’s 100% biodegradable.

4. Good for the soil

Bamboo doesn’t need pesticides in order to thrive. Pesticides can contaminate fresh drinking water supplies and cause serious damage to soil health and surrounding ecosystems. It also only needs rain water to grow.

5. Easy crop to grow

Bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world, so yields more often from the same plot. In fact, it takes 50% less land than cotton to produce the same amount of fibre.

Visit BAM’s website here.

Images: bamboo forests taken during Merryn’s trip to China, plus some images of BAM’s bamboo clothing products