Although it is most found in its native climate of warm, moist tropical regions, bamboo can be found in a diverse variety of climates, ranging from cool mountainous regions and highland cloud forests to hot tropical areas.

Bamboo has been used for everything from building materials to food and is incredibly versatile. Testament to its popularity as a top sustainable choice, bamboo has a specific tensile strength that rivals steel, and a higher specific compressive strength than wood and even brick or concrete.

Bamboo’s big sustainable wins:

• Fast growing
• Stores up to 1.5 times more carbon than trees
• Compared to wood pulp, bamboo releases 30% less carbon in the cutting and mill pulp process
• It is possible that durable products made from bamboo are potentially carbon negative
• Bamboo produces 35% more oxygen than trees, when comparing identical sections of land
• The ultimate renewable resource: some species of bamboo, like the Chinese Moso variety, can grow up to 90 cm every day, which means it’s growing at a whopping 4 cm per hour!
• Easy processing means a higher volume of finished product, with significantly less production waste
• Unmatched sturdiness in end products

Making Bamboo Paper

Bamboo paper is made in an almost identical way to regular or kraft paper, although it presents many advantages. Bamboo is great for forming cups, and in the production of bamboo cups, very little water is necessary.

In many cases, the bamboo pulp does not need to be treated with chemicals for bleaching, as would be the case with wood, as the unbleached bamboo pulp itself produces a pleasing soft colour.

For further comparison, when cups made from wood pulp become soft when filled with hot water, bamboo cups gain strength. Further fortified with a compostable coating, this means that bamboo products can confidently be used for hot liquids, as well as cold and warm food and drink.