What can bamboo do for you?
Exploring how bamboo is shaping sustainable packaging solutions
As the sustainability movement continues to take over the packaging world, design engineers urgently search for environmentally friendly materials to improve packaging solutions. Environmentalists push for biodegradable and compostable materials and companies promote their paper-based packaging or post-consumer recycled products. Scientists experiment with new plastic alternatives and attempt to chemically engineer new substances to replace current materials. But in the center of the movement, an ancient resource has emerged as the basis for sustainable solutions. So naturally, we had to ask: what can bamboo do for you?
Natural benefits
Bamboo grows rapidly. In fact, it’s the fastest growing plant in the world, with certain species of bamboo adding 35 inches of height a day. It’s extremely common and readily available, already making it a renewable resource for sustainable solutions. It’s not a secret, humans have utilized bamboo for a variety of purposes for 5,000 years – its benefits have been etched into history.
Now the world turns to bamboo once again, this time for its packaging. It’s tough, durable, and high in fiber, which results in higher tensile strength. This makes bamboo-based packaging more resistant to stress and friction, perfect for reusable solutions. Bamboo is also naturally biodegradable, compostable, and non-toxic for the environment, making it a substantial improvement over current oil-based plastic.
Sustainable bamboo packaging
A variety of packaging solutions have arisen which implement bamboo’s natural advantages to create designs that are both market competitive and environmentally friendly. Dell Computers led the charge with bamboo-based packaging to protect their Inspiron Mini 10 laptops, praising its strength and environmental impact. Makeup brands CHIC CHIQ, Elate Beauty, and Antonym Cosmetics have all introduced bamboo packaging for their products as well.
The shift to bamboo packaging solutions is supported by scientific developments in bamboo fiber composite materials. Bamboo Fiber Reinforced Polymer composites (BFRP) combine bamboo with other natural fibers to create environmentally sound alternatives to plastic. These have been pivotal in the increased usage of bamboo-based packaging for all industries and product types.
Rescue the environment
Bamboo fiber packaging has the potential to slash packaging waste significantly, substituting plastic that can sit in landfills for centuries with natural materials. In addition to reducing waste, replacing plastics made from fossil fuels with bamboo can reduce CO2 emissions and boost the supply of oxygen to the atmosphere, as bamboo naturally consumes carbon dioxide and emits oxygen during photosynthesis.
EPE Thailand
When it comes to sustainable packaging solutions – EPE is ahead of the times. Our Thailand manufacturing location has been producing corrugated packaging using bamboo wood fibers for years. We combine recycled paper with bamboo fiber to create a significantly stronger packaging material that performs better and naturally decomposes, in contrast to plastic solutions.
Additionally, much of the pollution associated with the packaging industry comes from emissions during transportation, but by sourcing bamboo locally, EPE Thailand lowers our carbon footprint significantly. Bamboo is a renewable resource – it provides useful resources without needing to be killed and replanted. And as it grows, it adds helps clean our atmosphere, adding oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide, truly representing a sustainable material.
Talk to our professionals today if you’re interested in environmentally sound packaging solutions or how you can replace unsustainable materials, like EPS, from your product packaging.
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