Truck Driver Unloads 3 Tons Of Bamboo In 30 Seconds, Really?

Posted on March 27, 2013 by guillermobravo

In a rush to get the job done? This truck driver is! Watch this driver repeatedly back up and stop quickly, edging the load toward the back of the flatbed until it eventually throws the balance off and falls onto the ground. Classy!

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Bamboo Used as a Motorcycle Exhaust & Silencer

Posted on March 20, 2013 by guillermobravo

A strange thing happened recently in China. A young man Fang Jan is a keen motorcyclist, who lives in Chongzou city, inside the Guangxi Zhuang province. Recently he was put out of commission when his motorcycle silencer broke. Mr. Jan needed a new silencer, and money was tight, so he used a bit of home-made wizardry and created a new silence out of bamboo!

Bamboo as a silencer, come on now? Fang had no idea if his home-fashioned random idea would work or not. He was convinced the bamboo would burn away, but he was prepared to see if his temporary silencer would actually work. To his astonishment, and I guess ours too, he actually rode several miles on the bamboo exhaust on a Dayang bike and his custom made exhaust is still in fantastic condition! A television station in Fang’s province was alerted to the bamboo exhaust kit, and decided to pay him a visit.

The television crew was astonished to learn that the bamboo silencer was actually even quieter than the bog standard metal exhausts. There were no technical tests to decide whether the performance and power of the Dayang was actually making it go faster, but there is no doubt, mechanics across Asia will be thinking about putting this to the test.

The idea that bamboo can sustain such heat before becoming unusable is hard to believe, or is it? Bamboo is very strong and sustainable woody plant, and certainly is made from sterner stuff than many would give it credit for. But as for Fang’s Dayang motorbike, he almost certainly believes in bamboo now!

Source: Motorcycle China

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M-Bamboo Table & M-Bench by Jennifer Newman Studio

Posted on March 15, 2013 by guillermobravo

Jennifer Newman Studio is a company with a reputation for designing a contemporary feel to indoor and outdoor furniture. In its latest design is bamboo furniture in the form of an M-Bamboo table and M-Bench, all of which comes with a choice of different table tops. The company has moved into the sustainable world of bamboo furniture in style with the table that can easily be placed in your dining room or study, and equally look just as good on your patio or verandah.

The bamboo furniture is very easy to clean and both bench and table come in a wide range of colours and sizes. One of the strong features about the bamboo table is it’s an easy to clean product that will not attract mildew or mould, and using it outdoors is great because it is self-leveling on uneven surfaces.

The all new M-Bamboo table comes in two distinct styles; one has jointed legs and the other model features legs without a base. The solid bamboo table is the latest addition to the Jennifer Newman Studio range, and makes full use of the strong, durable bamboo surface. Bamboo offers density and stability like all hard wood grown in the tropics. It also is sustainable as it has the distinct advantage of being renewable at a rapid rate.

The bamboo is protected by its resilience to everyday wear and tear. The M-Bench is slightly angled and made of a tough aluminum structure. The bench is classic, practical and comes without any complications, a trait Jennifer Newman Studio tends to keep when designing furniture.

The outdoor M-Bamboo table is available in three sizes which will seat 2, 3 or 4 people on each side. The indoor table seats five people on each side and only comes in the one size.

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Loudbasstard Bamboo Speaker!

Posted on February 28, 2013 by guillermobravo

Put simply, a Loudbasstard bamboo speaker is a bamboo sound amplifier that turns your iTunes music library into an environmentally friendly bass boomer. Place your iPhone into the slot at the back, the music on your phone is instantly transformed into a loud, volume-pounding beat and all this is achieved without wires.

That’s right, the Loudbasstard Bamboo Speaker is made entirely from bamboo and its acoustic design enables the user to turn his or her iPhone into a bamboo sound amplifier. The finish on the Loudbasstard Bamboo Speaker can be made charcoal, emerald, whitewashed, teal, red or just simply natural looking. All bamboo speakers are made from bamboo and use no electricity; in fact there are no wires, USB leads, plugs or electronic attachments at all.

If you want to control the volume on your bamboo sound amplifier you will have to take your iPhone or smartphone and turn the volume up or down on the device as the Loudbasstard Bamboo Speaker does not have any volume control of its own.

The great thing about the Loudbasstard Bamboo Speaker is that you can still charge up your smartphone and place it in the bamboo speaker at the same time. There is plenty of space inside the device to perform both actions. Even if you have a case on your smartphone it will still be possible to leave the case on and use the Loudbasstard Bamboo Speaker at the same time. This is because the depth of the slot where your phone will sit is an inch deep, so there should be enough room here.

You should not look at this product as an alternative to a loud electronic speaker; the Loudbasstard Bamboo Speaker is simply an environmentally greener alternative that will still make your smartphone sound considerably louder than it would outside the bamboo sound amplifier.

The Loudbasstard Bamboo Speaker is organic in design and is a device that will offer you a personal sound. This means that if you are sat at a desk and you have the bamboo speaker facing you, it will sound reasonably loud to you and not everyone else in the office (unless they are standing right behind you).

Each piece of bamboo is cut by hand and dyed in the tropical splendour of the Philippines. Each one is hand crafted by locals and buying a Loudbasstard Bamboo Speaker will actually benefit local craftsman in Cebu. Check out other featured bamboo electronic accessories at Bambooki!

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Air Jordan XX8 Made with Bamboo Accents?

Posted on February 27, 2013 by guillermobravo

It’s a shoe, or a sneaker? One thing is for certain, its a shoe like nothing you’ve seen before.  The Air Jordan XX8 shoe has a unique camouflage design with bamboo accents to reflect its environmentally friendly aspect. The graphic print designs are varying but among the more popular look is the leaf-style finish with a mixture of both green and white coloring.

The Air Jordan XX8 ‘Bamboo’, features a white full zip sleeve with green, brown, gold and black leaves decorating throughout the upper part of the shoe; but then an elegant wood finished carbon fibre heel plate, a black inner sole and a clear, almost transparent outer heel.  The green and environmentally bamboo sneakers are made by Jordan at its home in Portland, which has a status of a green city anyway, and amazingly the bamboo used in these sneakers comes from a local company.

The Air Jordan XX8 made with Bamboo Accents appears to be more of a boot than a shoe or a sneaker; it fit snugly and comfortably around the ankle and would look absolutely great if worn with army attire or camouflage fatigue. If you look closely at the wood paneling at the back of the shoe, you will see that as well as being made from a locally-sourced bamboo company, it is also close to Jordan’s headquarters.

The bamboo shoe is much awaited and is likely that many watchers will be eagerly awaiting its release date, which we believe to be imminent.

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Biodegradable Bamboo Toothbrush Donates to Promote Oral Health

Posted on February 26, 2013 by guillermobravo

Bamboo Toothbrush by Smiles for the People

There is a new biodegradable bamboo toothbrush on the block and it simply has to become one of your coolest bathroom accessories. Using the conventional plastic brush often means it can slip from your grip once it gets wet, whereas holding a handle made from bamboo toothbrush is certainly more comfortable and allows for a firmer grip. If you already have a number of bamboo bathroom accessories in your home, then the bamboo toothbrush would be an ideal addition to your bathroom.

About Smiles for the People

Our friends at Smiles for the People will donate one toothbrush to someone in need, for every purchase you make. In the next 12 months the company plans to donate a total of 15,000 toothbrushes to people that need them. People are an important part of what Smiles for the People are all about.

Every product it makes is designed to aid customers live a healthier, better and more spiritual life, and the bamboo toothbrush is certainly one product it showcases as a eco-friendly, biodegradable brush that is easy to use and good for your health and the environment too.

Bamboo toothbrushes are safe to use, simple, and will last a long time. They are ideal for the children too. Smile for the People are a company that views its customers as people and not just sources of revenue. Oral health care is important if communities around the world can all source products that are going to be healthy, simple to use and environmentally friendly.

The biodegradable bamboo toothbrush ticks all the right boxes here and one single brush we estimate should easily last you about one year. Remember, for every one toothbrush you buy, Smiles for the People will donate one to a person in need somewhere in your community or around the world. Everyone living on mother Earth has a responsibility for looking after the environment, and Smiles for the People has designed a product to have the lowest impact possible on our environment.

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Bambory Bamboo Speakers at Work!

Posted on November 6, 2012 by guillermobravo

When we think about audio speakers, we often tend to see them as clunky, space-eating boxes made of wood, plastic and metal that often has grilled screens that house the driver, be it the subwoofer, woofer, or tweeter. Modern speakers have now assumed different forms and sizes but the basic concept remains the same. Now, speakers are made from various materials and sport different configurations; some have become so revolutionary that they become high examples of this kind of audio equipment. Of these, bamboo speaker systems are a new and interesting take on how audio speakers have been evolving.

The Bambory bamboo speakers are the brainchild of designer Guo Yang. They set forth a new way to make audio speakers from novel and hitherto-unused materials. At first glance, they look like simple bamboo wicker baskets that are topped by a white grill that is said to be made of ceramic. It gives these bamboo peripherals an appealing, easy look that speaks of home. They are simple and innocuous, and any homebody may take in the low-key aura that they present. They exemplify the natural and environmentally-focused look that bamboo peripherals usually have.

These Bambory bamboo speakers mark an evolutionary step in audio speaker design, but in terms of technology they are no different from ordinary speakers. Nevertheless, its appearance may belie this; this fusion of commonplace materials – the ceramic of the grill and the bamboo of the body—holds promise that can be adapted for future bamboo peripherals that come in its wake.

These speakers are still in their concept stage, meaning that they still need to be tested and are not yet available in the market. Still, it appears that it has now gained a following from audio enthusiasts and technology buffs. Any normal person is not immune to its charms; it evokes a sense of peace and easy reservation. However, the fact that it uses ceramic grills means that it still is an example of modern technology. This mix of modern and old is the prime highlight of these bamboo speakers.

The technical specifications for the Bambory speakers have not yet been released, so their audio capabilities are still relatively untested. However, bamboo is an excellent audio medium as it has been used in pipes and other traditional musical instruments, and it would be interesting how its adoption as the material to make up the body of the speakers can lend to the acoustical characteristics that are to be found in these speakers. Also, the ceramic grills may add to the quality of sound that these speakers may have. The concept behind their use in the speakers would be another evolutionary step in how modern audio speakers are now being made.

The Bambory Speakers are another good demonstration of how modern technology and traditional craftsmanship can easily coexist with each other. As such, we must look forward to the day that they finally are made available so that we can experience the wonder that these audio speakers can exude.

Resources:

http://www.yankodesign.com/2012/11/01/for-the-love-of-bamboo/

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/11/the-bambory-speakers-are-a-set-of-speakers-made-from-bamboo/

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Easy and Eco-Friendly Back-To-School Ideas

Posted on August 31, 2012 by caitlinself

Getting your kids ready for going back to school is nothing short of mayhem. It’s every parent’s favorite time of year. They can go back to their peaceful afternoons and find a little solitude during the day. You just have to get through the 2-6 weeks of back-to-school madness. You may be inundated with sales at big box retailers telling you to help your kids look fresh on their first day, and you’re probably tempted to trash last years’ supplies for the newest and brightest. (Cause we all know your kid deserves the best.)

In reality, the back-to-school business creates a lot of waste, and it is part of our social and environmental responsibility to try and reduce it. Here are 5 great ways to change your habits and lead your kids in the right direction as they head back to school.

Dig Through The Old

We all want brand-new school supplies and outfits and backpacks each year, but that’s expensive and bad for the environment. For your first steps towards an eco-friendly year, look through your kids’ leftover items from last year, force them into their siblings’ hand-me-downs, and even visit a thrift store or two to stock up on supplies. You can also rip out clean notebook paper and use it as loose-leaf binder paper, rather than tossing out 50 unused sheets at the back of a notebook. The very best way to reduce waste is to create and consume less, and reusing is the way to do it.

Recycled Paper Products

If you’re buying new notebooks, binders, and loose-leaf paper, hit up the 100% recycled sections of Staples and Target first. It may cost you a few more pennies or dollars, but you’re greatly helping the recycling cause by doing so! You can also find more and more affordable paper products made from bamboo. In your search, look out for notebooks and supplies that are lined with plastic. This plastic lining normally means they either cannot be recycled, or requires more energy to do so. Skip the 10-cent notebooks and head over the to 100% recycled/recyclable brands instead.

FSC Certified Pencils

Most wooden pencils today are made from incense cedar, after the original wood, red cedar, encountered a shortage. Although Incense cedar is grown in managed forests, it isn’t always grown using responsible methods. If you look for certifications from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), you can be sure that the wood used in your pencils are grown in a responsible manner. Also consider pencils made from renewable materials that are refillable, but remember to try and avoid the plastic ones!

Homemade Boxed Lunches

Look at all that excess packaging!

As kids, we all loved those Lunchables, aka, unknown processed lunch products. Many of them don’t exactly classify as food, given that there are all sorts of words you can pronounce on the ingredients list. Skip the pre-packed lunch, and avoid the cafeteria line with some great homemade lunch ideas. You’ll save money, and you can avoid all of that wasted packaging. Plus, when you control what goes in the lunch box, you can make it local, organic, and sustainable.

No More Plastic Baggies!

It’s great that you’re started to send your kid to school with a packed lunch, but make sure you use reusable containers rather than disposable plastic baggies. We waste literal tons of plastic each year, mostly in the form of convenience packaging. Opt for BPA-free plastic, or lightweight bamboo containers for your kids’ food. You can also send them off with this great reusable bambooware by To-Go Ware rather than using disposable plastic flatware. There are lots of fun and colorful varieties of containers and flatware online that make packing your kids’ lunch a breeze.

 

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Your Bamboo Product Glossary: Words, Terms, and Phrases

Posted on August 29, 2012 by caitlinself

There are so many different products on the market these days that it is nearly impossible to know what you’re actually buying. Here at Bambooki.com, we believe that bamboo is the superior material for making the majority of these products, primarily due to its rapid renewability, sustainability, and versatility. Many people aren’t even sure what renewability is, or why sustainability is important. Hopefully with a little help from of this glossary, you can easily navigate the products on our website, using what terms and labels matter most to you to guide your decisions.

Bamboo Terms

Bamboo: Bamboo is a perennial evergreen, and a wood-like member of the grass family. Its unique growth process makes it one of the fastest growing plants in the world. There are currently between 1,000 and 1,500 species, most of which are native to parts of Asia, and they vary in size, growth speed, and strength.

Moso Bamboo: Moso is the most commonly known species of bamboo, and is one of the giant timbers of this grass family. Moso is a very temperate bamboo, native to China, and it is one of the species that produces edible shoots for humans and animals alike. It is also considered one of the strongest species, and is recommended for use in bamboo flooring.

Moso Bamboo Plantation

Bamboo Viscose: Viscose from bamboo, also sometimes called viscose rayon, or rayon from bamboo, is the resulting material made from the cellulose fibers of the bamboo plant. It is a step away from the natural fibers, but is often considered more durable. The bamboo cellulose is hardened using a diluted sulfuric acid solution, then spun into bamboo fibers and woven into bamboo thread.

Thread Count: Thread count is a common term used to categorize the quality level of sheets. The thread count simple refers to the number of threads woven together in a single square inch of fabric. High thread counts generally denote softer sheets, and most bedding comes in the range of 200-400. Bamboo bedding is not always categorized by thread count, but 100% bamboo sheets are often compared to the same softness as 300-400 count silk or cotton sheets.

Eco-Friendly Terms

There are a lot of eco-friendly adjectives preceding many products and materials out there, so it’s important to know what you’re buying before you swipe your card. Here are a few of the big ones to help you decide which labels are important to you.

Sustainable: This term technically combines the economic and environmental aspects of a process or product. It means that the manufacturing processes or the materials are used and harvested in a way that conserves the local ecology, avoids depletion of natural resources, and can be reasonably maintained by the community at a certain rate or level. Bamboo is called sustainable due to its non-negative impact on the surrounding ecosystems, as well as its ease-of-growth for climates around the world.

Renewable: Renewable simply means that the item has the potential to regenerate or continue to grow. Fossil fuels and natural gas are no longer considered renewable due to the thousands or millions of years required for the earth to make them. A renewable source of energy is one that is not depleted by use, such as solar or wind-powered energy. Bamboo is considered rapidly renewable because it grows incredibly quickly, and requires very little from the environment in order to thrive.

Organic: Technically, organic simply defines things that come from living matter. During the 20th century, many chemicals, fertilizers, and other synthetic products were introduced to agriculture. For this reason, we declare organic to define plants and produce that are grown without the use of irradiation, genetic modification, industrial solvents, non-natural fertilizers, or chemical food additives. In the United States, a food can be labeled as organic if it contains at least 95% organic ingredients. Bamboo is very easy to grow, and it will thrive under organic conditions, but many entrepreneurial agriculturists use non-organic chemicals for increasing profit margins.

Carbon Neutrality: Carbon neutrality is one of the biggest buzzwords of the decade, and is closely related to carbon footprint, greenhouse gases, and climate control. Human-caused climate control is caused by the release of more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the atmospheric layers can process and handle. Carbon neutrality is the process of eliminating or offsetting your carbon outputs by adding environmental systems to battle the carbon outputs. Carbon offsets include purchasing alternative and renewable energy sources, and planting trees and other carbon-eating flora.

Example of Carbon Neutral Declaration

Flooring Terms

Bamboo flooring can be a difficult industry to navigate these days, and with so many different types of manufacturing processes and resulting finishes; it’s easy to get lost. Here are a few of the most common terms used in bamboo flooring, and how they differ. Take a quick look before you start shopping for your bamboo flooring.

Strand-Woven: Often considered the strongest of the bamboo floor types, strand-woven bamboo flooring uses the actual fibers of the plant, rather than restructuring the material into planks. The most popular hardwood floor comes from oak, and strand-woven bamboo floors are considered twice as strong. The entire bamboo plant is used, eliminating waste. For this reason, it is often considered the most eco-friendly flooring type.

Strand-Woven Bamboo Flooring

Carbonized: Bamboo planks are often heated as a way of changing the color of the material; this process is called carbonization. There are several pros and cons of this process, but the addition of heat to the bamboo flanks results in a softer floor.

Vertical Bamboo: Vertical bamboo flooring is that which shows the thinner side of the bamboo strip on top. This results in very strong flooring that resists cracking, and has many more variations in color across each plank.

Differences Between Vertical and Horizontal Flooring – bambusabamboo.blogspot.com

Horizontal Bamboo: In horizontal bamboo flooring, the wider pieces of bamboo face up, so your floor actually looks like several flattened bamboo shoots lain out, which is almost exactly what it is. Horizontal bamboo flooring tends to have a more natural look and feel than other flooring types.

 

So, there you have it! Now that you understand a little more about the different terms used for bamboo products, you can make more informed decisions for your needs.

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Four Must-See Environmental Moviementaries

Posted on August 27, 2012 by caitlinself

Well, we could say films, or documentaries, but at the truth of the matter, these titles regarding the environment are incredibly interesting, entertaining, and, well, just plain good. You can absentmindedly watch many of these films while cleaning the kitchen and still walk away with a great deal of information. As more and more individuals struggle to marry their ideal lifestyle with their carbon-neutral lifestyle, these films and documentaries can help explain the various environmental issues we face.

Bag It

Did you know there are 5 known gyres of garbage swirling in the Ocean? Each of them has a 40:1 ratio of plastic to plankton, causing 100,000 animal deaths each year. This 2010 film explores our everyday exposure to plastic, from the lining in our coffee cups, to the plastic bottles we give to our children, and the toxic chemicals that leech into our foods and drinks. Some of these compounds found in plastic, including phthalates and Bisphenol A, are proven toxic chemicals, linked to health ailments such as male infertility, ADD, and diabetes. Our guide, Jeb Berrier, takes us on a journey to see exactly how much more prevalent plastic is than most of us ever knew.

Food, Inc.

Guess what? The way we treat our food – not just the food we eat, but also the food we serve to the food we eat – makes a huge impact on the environment. That’s why Food, Inc. is a very important environmental documentary, and it is one of the first of its kind. Nobody wants to think about the future of the food industry in this country, but if we want to protect our health, our children, our ecosystems, and our environment, it’s time we take the blinders down and listen to what this 2008 documentary film has to say.

Unless you’re in the industry, you may not realize how messed up it really is. We feed animals genetically modified corn when they should be eating grass, we allow companies like Monsanto to create a system that will inevitably result in a dangerously homogenous crop of food, as well as a monopoly. And, we allow genetically modified soy and corn to touch almost every processed item that hits the shelves, the drive-thru, and our mouths. Food, Inc. explores the inhumane “production” of meat, the environmentally unsustainable growing of corn and soy, and the laughable food label laws this country supports.

Vanishing of the Bees

Remember several years ago when we started hearing about these vanishing honeybees? At first, mothers could rejoice that their kids were less likely to be stung, and then they and everyone else realized how important bees are to our food chain. After further research across the country, we learned that bees are dying by the billions, many of them vanishing without a trace. This 2009 documentary takes us deep into Colony Collapse Disorder to see what, or who, is to blame for the vanishing of our best pollinators. It’s certainly an enlightening movie, and one that didn’t make any friends in the GMO industry.

An Inconvenient Truth

Nobody wants to see this on a list anymore, but you can’t possibly ignore its power. The former U.S. Vice President’s movie is overplayed and some say, over-annoying, but it’s also true. There’s a reason why Al Gore dubbed his environmental film about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth. Gore’s film is largely credited with educating the American public about the truth and effects of global warming. While many individuals were still looking at climate change as a liberal’s political agenda, Gore dug deeper into the American psyche, bringing evidence to the forefront of our minds. This educational film is easy to understand, and though a little dry at times, has even taught school kids across the country about global warming.

Now that you’ve got a handy little list, sit your environment-loving self on the couch, fire up the Netflix, and start catching up on some of the most important and dangerous truths of our time.

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