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Mars_B4_Moon,
I'll take a look to see what I find. If they cut down an entire forest to grow bamboo instead, which is almost certainly what they did, then the land has to become much more productive in terms of crop yield to make the switch worth it, from my perspective. If people do switch, then it encourages more of the same, so I either get more bang for my buck (less land use for the same paper products) or I don't encourage environmental destruction (cutting down more trees to grow something else) because of marketing claims about "X" being better than "Y". If all of the caveats are met, then bamboo it is. I'm unopposed to trying new things, provided the product is actually better than what we use now (less land use with greater output and lower total cost). Bamboo does grow astonishingly fast, so provided that the crop grows well somewhere within the US, I can see that being the case.
Quick question:
Do you use any bamboo-sourced toilet paper, paper towels, or cardboard?
We do have and use bamboo bath towels and wash clothes in our house (they've lasted for many years now- they don't seem to be substantially better than cotton, but they work the same and have lasted just as long as cotton), but I was unaware that they made bamboo toilet paper.
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For Mars_B4_Moon ... I decided to investigate your mention of Amazon ...
Here is a sample of offerings there...
Sponsored
Reel Premium Bamboo Toilet Paper - 24 Rolls of Toilet Paper - 3-Ply Made From Tree-Free, 100% Bamboo Fibers - Eco-Friendly and Zero Plastic Packaging
24 Count (Pack of 1)
4.6 out of 5 stars 2,712
$45.99 ($0.64/100 Sheets)
$41.39 with Subscribe & Save discount
Options:
2 sizes2 sizes
Climate Pledge FriendlyBetterway Bamboo Toilet Paper 3 PLY - Eco Friendly, Sustainable Toilet Tissue - 12 Double Rolls & 360 Sheets Per Roll - Septic Safe - Organic, Plastic Free, Compostable & Biodegradable - FSC Certified
12 Count (Pack of 1)
4.5 out of 5 stars 6,292
$29.99 ($0.69/100 Sheets) List:
$32.99
Options:
4 sizes4 sizes
Climate Pledge FriendlySponsored Ad - Caboo Tree Free Bamboo Toilet Paper, Septic Safe, Biodegradable, Eco Friendly Bath Tissue with Soft, Quick ...
Sponsored
Caboo Tree Free Bamboo Toilet Paper, Septic Safe, Biodegradable, Eco Friendly Bath Tissue with Soft, Quick Dissolving 2 Ply Sheets (300 Sheets Per Roll, 24 Double Rolls)
24 Count (Pack of 1)
4.3 out of 5 stars 8,479
$34.99 ($0.49/100 Sheets)
$33.24 with Subscribe & Save discount
Options:
3 sizes3 sizesSponsored Ad - ECO SOUL 100% Bamboo Premium 3Ply Toilet Paper Set of 12 Rolls |3600 Sheets, 300 Sheets per Roll | Eco-Frie...
Sponsored
ECO SOUL 100% Bamboo Premium 3Ply Toilet Paper Set of 12 Rolls |3600 Sheets, 300 Sheets per Roll | Eco-Friendly, Ultra Soft, Septic Safe & Sustainable
12 Rolls
4.6 out of 5 stars 36
$20.49 ($0.57/100 Sheets)
Options:
4 sizes4 sizes
Mars_B4_Moon ... (or SpaceNut if you have time and this is of interest) ... can you find out where these companies are sourcing their raw material?
In the context of Mars, and considering the great variety of bamboo varieties you have reported, a few may be better suited for Mars than others.
(th)
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Tahanson I did a quick search and didn't see any sources
This site compares brands
https://bamboodetective.com/bamboo-toilet-paper/
it mentions
PEFC certificate
'PEFC stands for sustainable forest management based on high ecological, social, and ethical standards.'
and
FSC certificate
FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) is a non-commercial, international organization promoting competent forest use.
Is bamboo toilet paper sustainable?
Yes, definitely. If you are tired of deforestation, switch to bamboo. Bamboo belongs to the group of woody perennial evergreen plants in the grass family. Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants in the world. While trees take 10-20 years to grow, bamboo renews itself in a few years.
Mars_B4_Moon,
Do you use any bamboo-sourced toilet paper, paper towels, or cardboard?
I have some bamboo furniture around, clothing towels, maybe a collection of some musical wind instruments I think are 'bamboo'. The wind instruments have not played them in a while but remember them feeling bamboo like. For me the problem is it seems 'weak' and not durable, also it looks basic and tropical at times people might not like the aesthetic of it since it does not look 'posh'. I think there might be some Additive Manufacturing Process of Composite Layers like what they do with plastic and wood that would make Bamboo 'stronger' or more durable, with 3-d printing they might be able to give it a finish or print or shine that makes it look rustic, expensive and old.
The furniture is strong enough but it is not very durable. I would need to go through a box and pull the stuff out & have a lot of silly 'music' stuff around and collected over time. I wasn't ever a Bamboo Flute person but I have listened to world music, I was always better on doing chords on guitar or piano or composing digital or doing a bassline. I wasn't ever a big fan of the Bamboo Flute 'tones' but I did like some Bamboo Flutes but only some not all and I'm more into the old style Flute Whistle with that Latin or Scottish Celt sound or Baroque or Classical music sound another sound I like is the traditional Native American Flute sound or the Concert Flute. I can play a recorder much better than a Concert Flute but I'm not great on tone quality anyways so not much of a 'Flute Player' but I can do a few songs on a Penny Whistle or Tin whistle. Some Flute you can tune but a lot of them you can't it will always sound a certain way, if the instrument is designed a certain way it will always be a microtone off your normal scale or intervals smaller than a semitone. Bamboo when they use it to make a flute it seems to be harmonically different or be tuned to that 'Eastern' sound, they also at times don't have a Mouthpiece but a 'blowing edge' you have to constantly control your mouth shape and aim the breath into a blowing edge of an open hole before you even get tones. It's possible these instruments were not the best quality I may have also bought some cheap lower quality instruments. Outside of wind or woodwind there are also 'reed' clarinets, harmonica, accordion and saxophones. I know bamboo is also used in a Reed instrument maybe India or Thailand or maybe China has a reed instrument with a paper-like bamboo membrane. There are things I might not make from Bamboo but it seems ideal for a light chair or outdoor coffee type table. If religion was to exist among Mars colonists and they need religion rituals to keep themselves happy and chilled then I could see Bamboo as an easy to make craft work for some ceremonial event, it could hold other plants, you can build religious shapes with the material, it could be a Mars garden thing make into a bird house or used as a picture frame for people holding onto a sentimental photo on Mars or it could be a pot in the kitchen holding kitchen utensils.
The reason I mentioned Bamboo and expensive 'Furniture' and 'Music' is I remember hearing how a lot of fine furniture or musical instruments were putting natural heritage and resources in danger, they would try to source rare woods and the cutting of these trees and demand for these woods was making the tree face extinction.
In news
Criminal Gangs are Logging the World’s Last Brazilwood Trees to Make Violin Bows
https://www.occrp.org/en/37-ccblog/ccbl … iolin-bows
and
https://web.archive.org/web/20230512142 … iped-ebony
'Ebony is becoming hard to find. If we continue down the current path of consumption, Ebony will become extinct. Ebony grows predominantly in Africa and India, but the U.S. Lacey Act, a piece of Legislation passed in 1900 and updated in 2008, banned the trade of illegally logged wood as well as shifting the burden of responsibility to the buyers.'
'As demand on our world’s forests and environment grow, it is critical we build guitars using sustainable sourcing.'
https://solutionsfordreamers.com/articl … oustic_gu/
Would someone on Mars be happy with a plastic guitar or bamboo guitar, or bamboo table and chair or would the elite of Mars source expensive. A good Piano for example has a mix softwoods need to have a fantastic vibrational resonance and need to be able to cope with that level of pressure whilst playing, wood like alder, spruce, cedar, ash, most will use spruce as their soundboards and also mix have hardwoods used for the body and framing of the piano as they are hard wearing, smooth but also so not compromise the sound quality examples like 'Maple' tree, mahogany, rosewoods, Brazil woods or ebony woods, the Piano Keys used to be Ivory they would get dirty very quickly glowed under UV light and sounded a certain way and they were probably ivory keys and old keys still collected, Ivory is mostly an illegal trade but I think they still trade Marine Mammal Tusks in Canada and Russia. African Blackwood is $13,000 per cubic square meter, Ebony trees can cost $10,000 + per kilogram and that is before you ship anything to Mars, Sandalwood is less expensive at $250 per kilogram, Brazilian Rosewood selling at a Price of $320+ per pound, the Oak tree was another expensive tree. People throw away old Phonograph record players but any one made from Oak will always be worth 1,000 bucks. If elite collectors are on Mars with collections of expensive hand crafted items will they be happy with all the material they can source locally or would material used for the King's table, drawer and cabinet or the fist Mars Philharmonic Orchestra then will it be transported all the way from Earth? It does not make any economic sense to transport something all the way from Earth when a substitute can be grown and produced on Mars or maybe instead sourced from a Biosphere on an Asteroid or a Moon Colony. All types of Wood have certain demands, like demand for Small ornamental religious items or a practical use like a chair or cabinetry or gunstocks or a shelf or maybe if they are concerned about the look of the Martian Mayor's office they would pick nicer woods, they would pick for 'Fine Furniture' and musical instruments or Wood Veneer thin slices of wood that typically are glued on because of the look or texture and grain and nice aesthetic. The Crop Bamboo is not a tree but of the perennial flower grass family, but it can do a lot of what trees do, it might not be the same 'quality' but it has the potential to replace trees as material in a lot of areas.
Bamboo's potential to absorb large amounts of 'carbon dioxide' would not be much of an issue since CO2 will be used in other areas in a Mars Colony or people who settle Mars might want to 'warm up' the planet and not reduce emissions.
I think because it grows so 'astonishingly fast' it should have potential as a crop if they manage to get certain species to grow inside a Mars biodome.
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-05-12 09:33:05)
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