{"id":70317,"date":"2020-01-13T07:38:37","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T06:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=70317"},"modified":"2020-01-08T16:42:19","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T15:42:19","slug":"lets-talk-about-bamboo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/lets-talk-about-bamboo\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s talk about\u2026.bamboo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bildschirmfoto
COP Madrid bamboo givaways \u00a9INBAR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the UN climate conference in Madrid, bamboo was one of the topics of discussion. Climate experts said it could offer an important biobased alternative to plastic, reports INBAR<\/a>, the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Martin Frick, a Senior Director at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change<\/a>, said that bamboo can be a \u201csustainable, biodegradable\u201d alternative to plastics: \u201cBecause it grows so fast, and grows back without the need to replant, bamboo offers a readily available source of material. It\u2019s also very versatile\u2026 We can build houses, bridges, flooring, decking, and even wind turbine blades from bamboo, and use it as a recyclable, renewable alternative to single-use plastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"INBAR-bamboo-cutlery-21eb2cb26a5c538ga725eba284287c5e\"
INBAR bamboo cutlery \u00a9INBAR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Naturally fast-growing and strong, bamboo fibres can be combined with corn starch, or heat pressed, to create products including plates, take-away cartons, crockery, cups and straws. Research by the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR) shows that bamboo plastic alternatives, if produced well, can be 100% biobased and completely biodegradable, and could play a big role in a global bioplastics sector producing around 2 million tonnes a year.<\/p>\n

According to Wang Jianzhong, chairman of a China-based company which produces bamboo tableware, the technology for creating these bamboo \u2018plastics\u2019 is well-established: \u201cMy company has been producing items for several decades. Our researchers are constantly finding ways to make stronger, more durable products.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bamboo can also be used to replace more durable items, from chopping boards and houseware to furniture. At Ningbo Shilin Arts & Crafts, a company based in China\u2019s mountainous Fujian province, bamboo has been used to make everything from chopping boards to furniture. Ningbo Shilin\u2019s general manager, Wang Xiaoqing, says that bamboo \u201cjust made sense\u201d as a material to use. \u201cIt\u2019s local, it\u2019s versatile and it creates many products\u2026. I believe bamboo will be widely used in future.\u201d<\/p>\n

For both companies, one of the main barriers to scaling up bamboo plastics is a lack of awareness. According to Jianzhong, \u201cMany people don\u2019t know about bamboo\u2019s benefits, so they are sceptical.\u201d<\/p>\n

This may be about to change. For several years, Ningbo Shilin has supplied bamboo goods to Swedish furniture company IKEA. And Jianzhong\u2019s company, Rui Bamboo, is now in discussions with Air China to substitute their plastic cutlery for bamboo. Trinh Thanh Long, a senior expert from the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation, said that increasing international penalties on plastic mean that bamboo alternatives may soon become more commonplace: \u201cWith the EU ban on single-use plastics, and other countries set to follow suit, there is increasing interest in sustainable alternatives. Bamboo can be a low-carbon, recyclable, biobased material for the future \u2013 a real \u2018green gold\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the UN climate conference in Madrid, bamboo was one of the topics of discussion. Climate experts said it could offer an important biobased alternative to plastic, reports INBAR, the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation. Martin Frick, a Senior Director at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said that bamboo can be a \u201csustainable, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[11270,14761,15656,12388],"supplier":[1540,380],"class_list":["post-70317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biodegradability","tag-cutlery","tag-dineware","tag-tableware","supplier-ikea","supplier-international-network-for-bamboo-and-rattan-inbar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70317"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=70317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}