How is Bamboo sustainable?

Not a day goes by that this blog writer doesn’t use the word ‘bamboo’. Even at weekends, even on days off, EVEN during sleep, the B-word resides at the forefront of our brain.

That’s because when you become a certified Cheeky Panda, bamboo becomes a significant part of your vocabulary. We love the stuff, partly because it gives us something to talk about, but mainly because it's given us the opportunity to make eco-friendly essentials for you lot to enjoy.

But how is bamboo sustainable? Why is bamboo eco-friendly? Why is this miracle material so gloriously good for the planet? Easy question. Here’s EXACTLY why, straight from the panda’s mouth.

It grows suuuuuuper fast

Bamboo is the fastest growing plant. In. The. World.

In the perfect conditions, it can grow three feet in 24 hours, so you can actually watch it grow, if you’ve not got much else on, that is. This is technically the case for any plant/tree/bush, but if you go into your back garden and stare at your rhododendrons, waiting for them to grow, you’re going to there for a while.

This rapid growth means it’s really renewable - it can keep up with our demand for paper products, whereas trees just can’t.

When we harvest, we don’t cut the roots. Since bamboo is technically a grass (not the kind that tells on people) it’ll grow back again as quick as a flash, ready to be chopped and pulped again for loo roll and wipes.

But when trees are cut down, they’re gone forever. No growing back, nothing. Nada.

See? Renewable. Keeps coming back, like the Need For Speed sequels. Try and stop it, you can't.

30, 30, 35…

…are the magic numbers.

Bamboo grows 30 times faster, produces 30% more oxygen and absorbs 35% more carbon than your traditional tree.

We’re a little annoyed that those numbers aren’t all 30, but we’ll let it slide because 5% more carbon absorbed per bamboo shoot is much better. It’s a fair trade.

So, the more bamboo we plant, the more oxygen we get. Meaning we can all breathe easy.

Plus, more bamboo might mean less carbon on Earth. Carbon is the stuff that’s making the world hotter, we don’t want too much of it, so more bamboo could help us balance things out a little bit by absorbing more of it.

Trees try their best, and we love them for it, but they can’t stand up to mighty bamboo. That doesn’t mean we should get rid of them, though. Quite the opposite, we need trees. What else are we going to read under and swing from?

Plus, bamboo doesn’t mind being made into loo roll. Trees do though, they’re sick of it.

It grows like MAD

We source our bamboo in SE Asia, where it grows like you would not believe. It’s basically like those weeds in your garden or your nose hair when you get older (what’s THAT all about anyway? We'll cover that in a different blog post).

Our lovely co-founders went on a trip to China and found that the bamboo growing wildly on the mountains was going to waste. So, they did what most people do – turn it into toilet roll and other eco-essentials. Why wouldn’t you?

It’s also worth noting that we don’t take bamboo from the hungry mouths of pandas. They only like a certain kind, they’re super picky. The cute little rascals.

Reducing deforestation

This one’s an easy one.

By using bamboo, we’re not using trees to make loo roll. PanDUH.

27,000 trees a DAY are cut down to make paper products, and that’s way too many. Think of all the animal homes destroyed and all the forests reduced to nothing. Sad, right?

Use bamboo, save trees, feel good. Easy.

We’ve used the word ‘bamboo’ 20 times in this blog, that’s enough for the average person per month (not a real statistic).

However, that’s a normal amount per day for THIS blog writer.

Hopefully these words inspire you to use this miracle grass in your daily life more often. Remember, a small switch can make a world of difference.

Love,
Team Cheeky Panda x