When Is Bamboo...Rayon?

October 23, 2009

I've had the bamboo fiber pulled over my eyes. Following a settlement with a clothing maker, the Federal Trade Commission announced that fabrics made from processed bamboo can't be pedaled as green--they're as synthetic as the rayon shirt hiding in your closet.

Under the FTC's settlement terms, retailer Bamboosa agreed not to make any environmental claims about its bamboo textiles being biodegradable, antimicrobial, and wholly made from bamboo fiber unless they could be backed up with reliable evidence. (Bamboosa's site still had green claims when I checked, though.)

Are there actually any green bamboo fabrics? An FTC advisory to consumers says not if they feel soft: "They are made using toxic chemicals in a process that releases pollutants into the air. Extracting bamboo fibers is expensive and time-consuming, and textiles made just from bamboo fiber don't feel silky smooth."

What about all those wonderful antibacterial, breathable properties bamboo fabric was said to have? Greenwashing. "Even when bamboo is the 'plant source' used to create rayon, no traits of the original plant are left in the finished product," the FTC reported. I'll won't repeat the "we've been bamboozled" cliché. But it gives me a good idea for a t-shirt.

Photo: Handspun bamboo thread that has been carbonized for color. Credit: Heather Kennedy.

The Not-So-Secret Loss Of Bees

February 16, 2009

It really is our beeswax: bee colonies continue to die. Last year the U.S. lost a third of its bees. Long a mystery, their disappearance might be even more complex than we imagined. An article in New Scientist starts to shed some light on it.

Instead of a single underlying factor, a bunch of things are likely taking out the bees. The main problem is a mite originating from Siberia that makes bees more susceptible to infections and can't be easily controlled with pesticides.

Agricultural chemicals have frequently been cited as potential culprits. Peter Neumann, of the Swiss Bee Research Center, told the magazine that he thinks separate agricultural chemicals and insecticides are combining to damage the bee populations, even if they don't have negative effects separately. Then there's the way bees have been bred. By choosing the calmest bees for honey production, the population has trouble defending itself. (There are no easy genetic answers, though: A breeding experiment gone awry brought us killer bees.) The UK is increasing funding for its National Bee Unit to work on solutions and the state of Iowa recently tightened its insecticide application rules.

Honey isn't the only thing at stake: We rely on bees to pollinate a third of the world's food supplies, so without them we're in for some nasty surprises. We save the bees, we save ourselves.

Photo Credit: Jeff Turner.

Car Parts from the Coconutty Professor

January 06, 2009

There is clearly not enough news involving coconuts. Fortunately, Baylor University in Texas is remedying that with a way to turn unwanted coconut husks into useful car parts.

While we haven't reached the coconut carburetor point, engineering professor Walter Bradley and his team of researchers envision the renewable fiber replacing the synthetic polyester that is used to make trunk liners, covers for interior doors, and floorboards. The team chose husks because they're inexpensive, nontoxic, and have the potential to work just as well as polyester.

Currently the Baylor team is testing the coconut car part prototypes, which were made at a local processing company, for safety. If they succeed in creating a new market for the husks, coconut farmers worldwide could see the price for their product go up, bringing a much-needed increase in annual incomes. Nothing nutty about that.

Image: Coconuts in Thailand. Credit: Komgrit Trakoontiwakorn.