Are bamboo floors really green?

Are bamboo floors really green

So you want to make your home as eco-friendly as possible. You set up compost bins, install low-flow toilets and buy energy-efficient appliances. But when it comes to your flooring, how eco-friendly can you really be? You may have heard that bamboo floors are more eco-friendly than traditional hardwood floors, but how eco-friendly are they?

People around the world have been using bamboo flooring and other bamboo products for years, but the United States hasn’t taken notice of the phenomenon until recently. The Environmental Benefits of Bamboo Flooring From Renewable Resource to Carbon Eater

However, not everything about bamboo is green. Bamboo can only be regenerated if it is properly maintained, and fertilizers, pesticides, and logging are becoming more common to meet the demand for bamboo, making it less than an eco-champion. There is also the cost of transportation, and the availability of cheaper bamboo on the market that is not only less durable, but may use finishes that release formaldehyde.

In this article, we’ll discuss the environmental pros and cons of bamboo flooring, as well as alternatives, and whether or not they’re a better choice for your home.

Let’s look at what makes bamboo flooring green.

First, the rapid growth and regeneration of bamboo. Technically a grass, not a tree, bamboo starts with rhizomes, which are stems that grow underground and extend shoots and leaves out of the ground. Once the young bamboo is planted, the usable “wood” takes 4 to 10 years to mature. After that, the plant grows new shoots every year. And the shoots grow fast: a foot a day!

As a result, bamboo plants can be harvested regularly without killing the plant, unlike trees used in hardwood flooring, which die at harvest and can take decades or more to mature.

Because of its faster growth rate, bamboo beats most trees in carbon sequestration, the rate at which it absorbs carbon. The slow uptake of carbon is linked to the greenhouse effect and ozone layer depletion. Because bamboo grows so quickly, it absorbs more carbon and produces more oxygen. About two and a half acres of bamboo can sequester 62 tons of carbon dioxide per year, while the same area of a young forest can absorb 15 tons of carbon dioxide. In addition, bamboo produces about 35% more oxygen than the same number of trees.

On top of that, high-quality bamboo is stronger than regular hardwood flooring, in part because it is a grass that bends in the wind. Because of its flexibility, premium bamboo is as durable as most types of hardwood.

So you’re thinking: this is great, when do I start laying bamboo? Before you buy, read on to learn why bamboo may not be as environmentally friendly as you think.

Bamboo Sustainability

Before you take your hybrid car to the nearest bamboo flooring store, you should know that not everything about bamboo is eco-friendly.

First, it’s time to get bamboo delivered to you. The type of bamboo used in wood flooring grows primarily in Asia, so to get it to the consumer, it must be transported via shipping, which is both expensive and energy-intensive Some U.S. bamboo sellers add carbon offsets to the price of their flooring; however, this only raises the price and doesn’t stop the depletion of finite natural resources like oil. It also doesn’t address questionable labor practices found in countries like China, a major supplier of bamboo.

Next is urea, a form of formaldehyde used to finish many types of bamboo. Formaldehyde is a volatile organic compound (VOC) that reduces indoor air quality. There are other options for getting bamboo the color you want, including heating it, but heating bamboo wood reduces its strength, often making it less durable than regular wood. For more information on bamboo flooring construction, see How Bamboo Flooring Works.

Finally, bamboo has become so profitable that low-income rural residents who initially benefited from growing it are succumbing to market pressures. To meet demand, farmers are increasingly using chemical fertilizers and pesticides that leach into the ground and contaminate groundwater

Forests are also being cut down to make room for the more lucrative bamboo. While bamboo is good at preventing soil erosion, the initial deforestation and the time it takes for the bamboo to grow on its own make the land vulnerable. In addition, while bamboo provides a good habitat for a large number of insects, birds, and animals, there are other species that only call the woods home; replacing most of the forest with bamboo would reduce the biodiversity of the area!

Now that you’ve learned about the less eco-friendly side of bamboo flooring, you may be wondering, “What other eco-friendly options do I have? Read on to learn about alternatives to hardwood and bamboo flooring.

Can we grow our own bamboo?

If bamboo produced in Asia is so questionable environmentally and socially, can we grow our own? Conceivably, yes. Some bamboo species can thrive in temperate regions of the United States. However, the bamboo needed to make flooring needs to be harvested as a labor-intensive crop, and American workers can’t compete economically with low-cost Chinese labor, even when transportation costs are taken into account

Back To Top