Why should we choose bamboo instead of plastic?

To combat pollution, China has launched a three-year action plan to promote the use of bamboo as an alternative to plastic items.

According to the plan, released by state agencies, including the National Development and Reform Commission, bamboo items used to replace plastics are expected to improve in quality, variety, size, and profitability by 2025.

"The bamboo basket is very soft but can hold more than 10 pounds of vegetables; it's very tough," Peng Min, a resident of Ji'an City, Jiangxi Province, told the Xinhua News Agency earlier this month. She bought a bamboo basket and carries it every day after work to buy food. "It is much better than a plastic bag, both environmentally friendly and of high quality."

With white pollution becoming an increasingly prominent threat to the global environment, finding more suitable alternative materials for plastics has become an urgent issue.

According to a study published in Science Advances in 2017, of the 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic produced since the start of large-scale use in the 1950s, 6.3 billion metric tons have degraded into plastic rubbish. Only 9 percent of the total has been recycled. The vast bulk, 79 percent, is accumulating in landfills or sloughing off into the natural environment as rubbish. Much of it ultimately ends up in the oceans, which serve as the ultimate sink.

Why choose bamboo as an alternative to plastic? Bamboo is a highly renewable resource. After three to five years of growth to maturity, a well-managed bamboo forest can be harvested and utilized repeatedly over the next 40 to 70 years. Unlike plastic, bamboo items will not end up in landfills because they are biodegradable.

Bamboo is also extremely durable due to its incredible strength. Bamboos are commonly referred to as "Green Steel" due to their exceptional material characteristics. As robust as it is, bamboo has an extremely long lifespan, making it the best alternative to plastic.

In addition, there are 1,642 species of bamboo in the world, with a distribution area of more than 50 million hectares. China is a large country with bamboo resources and a bamboo industry, boasting 837 species of bamboo covering an area of 7.56 million hectares, with an annual output of 150 million tons of bamboo timber, involving 20 provinces. These provide abundant resources for the development and industrialization of bamboo products.

"Daily necessities made of bamboo, characterized by high-temperature resistance and biodegradability, are widely welcomed by the international market," said Lu Wenming, deputy director-general of the International Bamboo and Rattan Organization (INBAR).

In China, annual production of bamboo straw has exceeded 1.2 billion. Bamboo knives and forks, bowls, and plates' annual output has also increased significantly, with a large number exported to Japan and South Korea, Europe, America, Southeast Asia, and nearly 110 countries and regions. Now, they can be seen on airplanes, high-speed railways, tourist attractions, and other catering distribution links, as Lu introduced.

However, although bamboo has competitive advantages in reducing plastic pollution, it still faces challenges in terms of harvesting costs, technical equipment, and market acceptance.

Due to the higher pricing of bamboo products, many consumers still prefer cheap plastic products. How to change the concept of environmental protection will also affect the development of the consumer market for bamboo products.

A number of experts believe that in the initial stage of the bamboo instead of plastic industry, it is also necessary for the government to improve the capital subsidy system to transform the low-yield and inefficient bamboo forests. This way, production capacity can be increased, and the cost of raw materials reduced, suggested Huang Hui, vice president of the Jiangxi Academy of Forestry, who also recommended continuing to strengthen the cooperation between research institutions and bamboo enterprises and forest farmers. "Through technological innovation to improve the production efficiency of the product, costs can be reduced, and market share can be increased," Huang told Xinhua.

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