The Many Benefits of Bamboo

Whether it’s by enhancing wellness, spirit and soul with essential oils; providing natural ingredients for DIY recipes, or supporting rituals with crystals – we like to think we’re making everyday life a bit better for our customers, naturally.

We took that ethos one step further by branching out with our first range of bamboo products. Bamboo can be better for you, your home and the planet – here’s how.

 A Renewable Resource

Although it looks and feels like wood, the bamboo plant isn’t a tree; it’s a type of giant grass. In the wild, it grows in dense, dark forests and has adapted to grow straight up quickly to light at the canopy. 

This competitive edge has made it one of the fastest-growing plants in the world. As a crop, its growth rate means that it has a high yield per square metre. For example, some fast-growing hardwood trees grow around 50 cm per year and take up decades to mature, whereas some bamboo species can reach maturity between one to five years and grow almost a meter a day. This means less farmland is required to produce materials.

Soil Healthy Harvests

Bamboo has a complex network of roots that help to stabilise soil and protect it from erosion. It also grows straight up in a single stem (as opposed to outward like a tree), so when it comes time for harvest, it’s cut a few nodes from the ground where it will also regrow from. Harvesting doesn’t kill the bamboo plant and it leaves the roots undisturbed which keeps the soil intact.

Cleaner Air

There is no substitute for a healthy, diverse forest in terms of biodiversity or carbon capture. We believe that natural habitats must be preserved, which is why we source our bamboo from plantations that don’t impact natural environments.

The amount of carbon sequestered by a bamboo plantation depends on the species, but in general, they can capture an amount comparable (sometimes higher) to other agroforestry plantations. When it is turned into products, that carbon is stored for the life of the object.

Another benefit of bamboo for the atmosphere is that it can produce up to 30% more oxygen than other trees!

Less Plastic

We’re sure you’re well aware of the need to reduce plastic, not just to reduce plastic pollution, but also for a healthier home environment. There’s a growing body of evidence that shows how plastics and microplastics can harm human health.

Aiming for zero plastic is a good goal and to get there we need alternatives that work just as well. Bamboo is versatile and durable and can be fashioned into a variety of different products. It’s used for household products, like fabric, food and even scaffolding on building sites.

Bamboo is a great alternative for hardy products around the home. We think it’s ideal for household goods as it also has natural anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties – important for items used in cosmetics and cleaning! While bamboo can't replace all plastic products and components, it's a step in the right direction for reducing plastic use at home.

More End-of-Life Options

Bamboo is also a strong durable fibre. This means that it can stay in workable condition (depending on the product) for several months or years. At the end of life, the bamboo components of the product can be composted and will break down in six months depending on your compost. Much better than the hundreds of years it would take a plastic toothbrush to break down.

Alternatively, bamboo can be used as great kindling! While there is some debate around the carbon neutrality of burning products, we think that if the product is a necessity, has been used to its full potential, and will be used in a fire (to cook or for warmth) that would have been burned anyway – then yes, it is a better alternative.

Want to get started with bamboo for the home? Explore our range here.