Ok, so the original Bamboo PC was just a gimmick. The laptop launched at the Hanover computer fair last March, with a laminated bamboo casing around a pretty conventional computer won’t make a dent in the rising tide of plastics sold around the world.
Despite not having any major eco benefits to the bamboo computers, they did give a good demonstration of what can be done with a material that versatile.
Bamboo is surely the only plant providing sources of food, building materials and woven fabrics. Even one of Edison’s original light bulbs had a bamboo filament. Its strength and low price tag makes it a great material for building, particularly in parts of Asia where it’s used as scaffolding. The bamboo fibres have extremely high tension and compression strength. It’s compressive strength works out around twice that of concrete, bamboo also has the same tensile strength to weight ratio as steel. And now there’s a bamboo laptop!
Bamboo products ticks almost all boxes for anyone looking to purchase eco-friendly home furnishings. To begin with, it’s an extremely sustatinable material. Some bamboo species are able to grow more than one metre every day. The locals that live close to these fantastic plants are able top cut down as much bamboo as they need while still having the same sized forest at the end of the year as they did at the beginning. As for the global warming problem, because bamboo is a plant, all products made out of the sustainable material contains a large amount of atmospheric carbon. However, the plastic equivalent to a bamboo products actually adds to the atmospheric carbon levels, rather than taking away!
Another point; due to bamboo being a natural material, it has a number of variations in quality, size and appearance, all of these differences make it difficult to work with as part of a mass production line. This means that when buying a bamboo product, you can be quite sure that it’s been hand crafted. If you buy from a reputable source of eco-friendly products, you’ll know that the craftsman that made the item was paid a fair wage for their time and skills. The final thing is that you’ll be sure that the item you bought hasn’t gathered any air miles during its creation.
With such strong eco credentials, it’s amazing that bamboo products are so beautiful. Just picture a hand crafted bamboo box, layered 15 times with natural shellac. All natural, and really lovely. Only the other day, I bought an amazingly crafted bamboo knife block and I’m seriously considering purchasing other bamboo bamboo knife block such as salad bowls. Stylish and ethical. Win. 
No related posts.
{ 0 comments… add one now }