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GREEN EARTH BAMBOO


was a recent cold snap in China that killed a lot of the bamboo crop, leading people to essentially take what they could get. However, Sullivan adds, “China’s been a good steward of its bamboo crop, and while the weather kept the crop down, it isn’t out.”


Bamboo for babies Perhaps not unsurprisingly, bamboo has been found to be an ideal material for items geared toward children. As a wood, Lorena Siminovich, founder of San Francisco-based wholesaler Petit Collage, says bamboo is ideal for modern décor and playthings. “Our bamboo mobiles are one of our signature products,” she says. The same bamboo used in the mobile hanging over a


baby’s crib can also be used as the primary material for the baby’s sleeper and crib sheets. According to online retailer Green Earth Bamboo, demand for bamboo textiles has really increased over the past fi ve years. Green Earth Bamboo’s Corey Dinerstein explains that “the bamboo is harvested and broken down into a viscose, which is used to make up the fabric.” Viscose is a form of wood cellulose used to make rayon. It is this rayon that creates the fabric, and because of that, there are many people in the bamboo industry who are skeptical that clothes or sheets or baby blankets can be truly called a bamboo product. Nancy Morgan, founder of Yala Designs of Ashland, OR,


disagrees with that assessment. She was fi rst introduced to bamboo fi ber during one of her frequent visits to China. “The bamboo is ground into a paper-like material and then is sent to the next process, which is spinning the paper like fi ber with a solvent – sodium hydroxide – to create the viscose material,” she explains. And despite the solvent, the process used to create the fi ber is green. “The processing is done in a closed loop system, which means that 98% of the chemicals and processing water is reused,” Morgan adds. “We viewed the holding ponds where the water is stored for reuse. We saw this


154 Winter 2013 n GREENRetailer


entire process when we visited the production plant. The fi ber is Oeko Tex certifi ed, which means that there are no residue chemicals in the fi ber.” Yala Design became an early adopter of bamboo fabric,


using it for nightwear and loungewear. It proved to be so popular that Morgan expanded into a full line of clothing for men, women, and children, and has recently added bed linens and bath sheets. Lyn Pletscher has been selling Yala Designs in her Idaho


City store, Lyn’s Linen Shop for years. “The loungewear is the most popular because people like how comfortable the fabric is,” she says. Raija Keranen shop manager for Tottini, a Seattle store that


sells nursery and baby furniture, toys, and clothing, also says bamboo products are a big seller. “People tend to lean towards


BAMBU GREENRetailerMag.com


TOTALLY BAMBOO


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