Bamboo and its applications
Building and construction material
Charcoal; health and home products, fertilizer in agriculture etc.
Edible shoots
Small scale industries
Handicrafts
New generation products as wood substitutes
Transportation industry - truck bodies, railway carriages
Boards and furniture
Medicinal uses
Paper and pulp industry
Long-time source of biomass for industry
Textile industry
Fast renewable resource
Bamboo is a woody grass. It is fast growing and a highly renewable resource. It has some 1250 species in 75 genera with varying sizes. India has the largest bamboo forests, next only to China. It surges skyward as fast as 1.2 meters in a 24 hour period. Some species are suitable for soil stabilization, wind break, urban wastewater treatment and reduction of nitrates contamination. Potential to put a brake on the fire (create a fire line) in the traditional forests.
Bamboo play a key role:
Earth is suffering from resource depletion, habitat loss, species extinction and ecosystem pollution, suggesting sustainability is not enough. Architects and developers are now in power to choose materials and systems that have a restorative effect on the environment. Bamboo College encourage more use of such sustainable choices of materials such as bamboo.
Bamboo timber can be harvested every year after 6 years, compared to 10 to 50 years for trees Bamboo generates 30% more oxygen than trees. It helps reduce carbon dioxide gases blamed for global warming. Some bamboo sequesters up to 12 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare, which makes it an efficient replenisher of fresh air.
Bamboo is a natural water control barrier.
It has spread root system and large canopy, bamboo greatly reduces rain run off, prevents massive soil erosion and keeps twice as much water in the watershed. Bamboo helps mitigate water pollution due to its high nitrogen consumption, making it a solution for excess nutrient uptake of waste water from manufacturing, livestock farming and sewage treatment Bamboo can restore degraded lands for generations to come.
How often does the material of the house you live in, the clothes you wear, the music you listen to, the paper you write at, the pen you write with, the nutritious food and beverage you consume, come from the same plant? How often?