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Bamboo is one of the most versatile plants in the world, with well over a thousand applications for the grass. The documented traditional uses for bamboo run from bikes and clothing to scaffolding, flooring and furniture.
Fashion: Bamboo's popularity is surging among designers for use in making shoes, jewelry and handbags. Retailers like Bamboo 54 have built entire lines around bamboo's stylish versatility, while Gucci recently incorporated bamboo in such diverse ways as a clutch bag and as a stiletto for a sandal.
Manufacturing: Scandinavia imports bamboo for ski poles and to mark the borders of roads buried under snow. Larger culms are used by makers of fishing rods and furniture. Two-thirds of the bamboo China produces is used to make furniture and building supplies, and as reinforcement rods in concrete and heavy construction.
Natural, elegant and beautiful, bamboo flooring is becoming all the rage. Bamboo's intrinsic strength and stability make it ideal for flooring, and its pricing is competitive with that of domestic hardwoods, with prices ranging from $5 to $8 per square foot. The coatings on pre-finished bamboo flooring products are UV-cured, with low emissions of VOCs. Bamboo flooring is installed in a similar way to hardwood floors (meaning nailed to a subfloor).
Bamboo floors are easy to care for—sweep or vacuum regularly and use non-alkaline cleaning solutions.
Paper: Bamboo can be used for making paper of many kinds, from heavy brown to fine-coated printing stock. On a paper hungry planet rapidly being denuded of its forests, bamboo may yet be a savior. The modern paper industry has expanded to such an extent that 2.2 million tons of bamboo are used in India for this purpose.
Housing/construction: Bamboo's role in the construction field is substantial, with hundreds of millions of people living in houses made from bamboo. In Bangladesh, 73 percent of the population lives in bamboo houses.
Food: Young bamboo shoots are highly prized in Japan for their delicate flavor and texture and are an important seasonal dish in Japanese cuisine. Bamboo shoots are a source of carbohydrate, vegetable fat, protein and vitamin B, which improves blood circulation.
Energy/fuel: Although wood charcoal makes a good fuel, bamboo charcoal is almost three times as porous as wood and bamboo charcoal contains a large amount of minerals, such as iron, manganese and potassium, making it a much more effective fuel and odor remover. Although it is not readily available in the U.S., you can find it through some oversees Websites.
In fact, bamboo burns so well that in 1882 Thomas Edison discovered that the carbonized bamboo made an ideal filament for his first electric light bulb.
Dehumidifier: Bamboo charcoal absorbs humidity, thus protecting shoes and clothing from mildew.
Soruces Some companies selling bamboo flooring and products are:
