Natural Bamboo Fabric
Natural bamboo fabric is a slightly coarse fabric, similar to linen and hemp. It’s made by combing out the bamboo fibers and spinning them into thread. This is labor intensive and doesn’t produce the soft, silky fabric that is in demand. It can be a bit rough, so avoiding bamboo fabric in sheets is a good idea.
Bamboo Viscose
Bamboo viscose, on the other hand, is soft and silky. It is an attractive fiber with a lovely sheen. But when we look at the process involved in turning bamboo fiber into viscose, the sustainability of bamboo fabric is called into question.
Chemical Processes
To get the silky, soft material that is used for bed sheets, clothing, and other products, bamboo fiber is processed into “bamboo rayon”. Rayon, as mentioned earlier, is a manufactured fabric that is made from regenerated cellulose fiber, using a chemically-intensive process.
There are two ways that bamboo cellulose is made into rayon:
- The viscose process, including a second step (Modal)
- The lyocell process.