Bamboo is Not Natural
At least most clothing labeled bamboo is not.
I named this newsletter the Mindful Designer’s Almanac in part so I can give myself a good outline for what to write about each month. Almanacs are resources that connect the calendar to what’s actually happening in nature during that time. Since this almanac’s focus is on clothing, each month, I explore a different natural fiber used for textiles that is harvested that month. This month, farmers in China are harvesting hemp whose fibrous core will be extracted, spun into yarn, and knit and woven into fabric. You can read the last two years’ articles about hemp here:
Although there is plenty more to say about hemp, I’m nine and a half months pregnant, so the only fiber on my mind these days is bamboo. Why? Because bamboo seems to have cornered the baby market. My baby could wear a bamboo onesie while he’s swaddled in a bamboo swaddle, on top of bamboo sheets, on a plant-based mattress partially made with bamboo.
When reading “made of bamboo” on the tag, most consumers assume that fiber was extracted from somewhere in the bamboo plant, then spun and woven or knit, like hemp and linen. This is true to some extent, but the fiber in bamboo stocks does not result in the silky material used in baby clothing. It creates a texture like jute; the resulting fabric is akin to a potato sack. The “bamboo” fabric in baby clothing and accessories is rayon.
Rayon was the first synthetic fiber invented- it is cellulose synthesized into a fiber. The cellulose in rayon most commonly comes from eucalyptus trees, but can also come from other sources like beech, cotton, soy, and bamboo. It was first invented in the mid-1800s in France as a man-made alternative to silk because French silkworms had been decimated by disease. Researchers found a way to extract cellulose from tree bark and chemically restructure it into a fiber that can be spun into a silky yarn.
Rayon starts as a cellulose-rich material. The wood is pulped into small chips, then soaked in a caustic solution to break it down further. The broken-down cellulose is compressed into sheets. The sheets are shredded and mixed with carbon disulfide, then poured into a caustic soda bath. The result is a viscous (why rayon is also called viscose) liquid that looks similar to honey. Using mechanical spinning and an acid bath, the viscose solution forms long fibers or filaments. Although the process of making rayon and polyester is different, they share the same idea: you take a carbon-rich (wood for rayon and petroleum for polyester) material, then synthesize it to convert that carbon into a form that can be used for textiles.
The final result is rayon, not bamboo, eucalyptus, cotton, or whatever the initial input was. The raw material used to make the rayon is chemically dissolved in the process, so that it no longer exists in the final product. The fabric is not made from bamboo; it is derived from bamboo. Labeling a garment made with rayon, “bamboo,” is equivalent to labeling a polyester garment “petroleum.” It is also illegal, as calling rayon bamboo violates the US Federal Trade Commission’s and the EU’s textile naming rules.
Brands not only mislabel rayon bamboo, but also say that the rayon has bamboo’s inherent qualities. Again, this fabric is not actually made of bamboo, so it does not have bamboo’s inherent qualities, such as antimicrobial or moisture-wicking. If you want these qualities for your baby, which you probably do, especially when the baby is sleeping, you would have to buy fabric made with bamboo fiber that was retted and turned into a bast fiber, which is not commercially done. Or choose fibers that are actually natural, like cotton or wool.
NOTES
https://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Rayon.html
https://www.aatcc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/bamboo.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B0122270509001228
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/a35604410/bamboo-eucalyptus-fabric-false-labeling/
https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/how-avoid-bamboozling-your-customers
What about bamboo tencel? Many sportsweat brands are using it as a less toxic version to polyester. Love to hear your thoughts.
Go off pregnant queeeen!