Interesting Ways We Use Bamboo

Bamboos are of notable economic and cultural significance in East Asia and South East Asia where they are used extensively in everyday life as building materials, as a food source and as a highly versatile raw product. These 14 uses of this sustainable plant highlight not just its versatility, but the ingenuity of the human mind as well.
1. Musical Instruments & Equipment

Although mostly associated with the wind instruments, bamboo is used to construct a variety of percussive instruments. Examples include the xylophone and the angklung—an Indonesian instrument comprised of tuned bamboo tubes on a bamboo frame. The instrument is shaken and struck at the same time, creating a percussive and tuneful sound.

The tan hue of the bamboo gives speaker enclosures a rustic look, and are a perfect complement to conventional black speakers.

2.  Footbridges

Given its durability and strength, bamboo is an easily workable, light and extremely stable building material. It is an exceptional material that withstands large amounts of weight, making it suitable for footbridges in rural settings. One such example is the Kampong Cham bridge in Cambodia, which connects two islands in the region and holds the distinction of being the longest bamboo bridge in the world.



3. Alternative Energy

Bamboo is renowned for being a highly sustainable material, because it grows very quickly in moderate to poor soil conditions—some varieties can grow up to a foot a day! And because harvesting the plant results in little to no damage of individual stalks. Another ‘green’ use of bamboo is as a building material for alternative energy installations. In many rural settings, like this one in Yangshuo, China, bamboo is a primary material for building waterwheels for hydropower.

4. Kitchenware

Bamboo cutting boards are a hot item in personal kitchens. Aside from helping knives stay sharp, bamboo cutting boards are incredibly stylish and much easier to clean than typical plastic cutting boards.
Bamboo is a popular material for traditional Asian kitchenware as well. For instance, bamboo steamers have been used in Asia for centuries to cool rice and steam vegetables, but have more recently made their way west and bring an elegant, healthy way to steam—rather than boil vegetables—preserving their flavor.
Bamboo shoots have been a popular food staple in Asia for centuries. Utilized in stir-fries and served fresh, dried, shredded, pickled, braised, and (Yum!) curried, bamboo shoots (the emergence of a new bamboo stalk) are considered a delicacy in the Coorg district of Karnataka, India. If you decide to eat bamboo shoots, be careful! Some species contain cyanide, and require proper preparation to be consumed.

Despite its myriad of uses within the culinary world, it’s safe to assume that bamboo’s most appropriate use is in making bamboo beer.


6. Air Fresheners and Odor-Absorbers

Forget Arm & Hammer baking soda! When you’re putting away the leftovers, you’ll find that bamboo charcoal is a versatile material used for air freshening. When finely ground and contained, it naturally kills odors in refrigerators and other small places such as closets or cabinets.
This is an image of a Chikuno cube, a Japanese counterpart to the boxes of baking soda commonly found in refrigerators throughout North America. In addition to odor-absorption, bamboo charcoal also acts a dehumidifier. 


7. Health and Beauty Products

Many ingredients used in beauty products can be intimidating (such as placenta), but those concerned with simple aesthetics can forgo the disturbing in favor of skin exfoliants made from bamboo charcoal. When heated, bamboo charcoal is made into a medicinal vinegar, used in places like Japan to treat minor skin conditions like eczema. Bamboo products like this are also known for anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties.

8. Clothing

 Not content with only making your skin beautiful, bamboo wants to make your clothing beautiful as well. Bamboo has become a popular choice in durable, air permeable, soft fabrics, and is used in to make bedding, underwear, baby diapers, blankets, bags, hats, and much, much more.

9. Art & Writing Materials

In addition to serving as a building material for a variety of musical instruments, bamboo’s uses extend to the visual arts. Common examples include bamboo brushes, drawing implements, and materials used prominently in sculpture. Artwork created with or from bamboo is still very much part of a living tradition and practiced by cultures throughout the world.

In the earliest Asian civilizations, bamboo ‘slips’ were regularly used as writing surfaces. The Art of War by Sun Tzu was composed on a bamboo slip in the 6th century.  A slip is a tablet read vertically down the bamboo stalk.
10.  Motorcycle Helmets

You wouldn’t think it, but the durability of bamboo makes it an ideal protective covering for your noggin. While the notion that the only thing protecting your head from becoming permanently embedded in the asphalt below you is a carefully constructed piece of grass might be bamboozling, this bamboo motorcycle helmet passed E22-05 safety standards in the UK. Not only that, it’s way more stylish than plastic, don’t you think?



11. Bicycles

Bamboo bikes are a union of natural material and a highly innovative industry. To manufacture these products, bike frames can literally be grown, with the shape of the stalks manipulated and formed into a variety of styles using a method not unlike that of pruning a bonsai tree.



12. Cars

Not one to ignore the plant’s versatility, engineers and scientists at Kyoto University in Japan have utilized bamboo in the construction of electric cars. Although not the most aesthetically pleasing vehicle, this Kyoto bamboo electric car is representative of the evolution of an emerging industry now highly dependent on plastics.

13. Construction Scaffolding

Bamboo is used extensively throughout the world as an inexpensive, plentiful and sustainable material in a variety construction projects and scaffolding is no exception. The strength and durability of the plant easily bears the weight of workers, their tools and other materials. Bamboo has incredible tensile strength, meaning that it can withstand significant amounts of stress and is comparable to steel’s tensile strength. While the use of a natural material to aid in the construction of large-scale construction projects throughout the world may seem strange, one only has to look as far as China, where bamboo is used in much the same capacity as steel is in North America.


14. Weaponry
Bamboo swords and staves (a long stick or staff) have been used for thousands of years—as training implements in the kendo tradition of Japan and in India bamboo staves are constructed for stick fighting, a form of martial arts training. These traditional disciplines and the use of bamboo weapons remain alive today.
Just like as used in fishing poles, bamboo is a trusted material for making bows and arrows due to its strength and ability to bend without breaking. In the South Seas, bamboo blowguns and darts were staples of indigenous hunters and ancient Samurai warriors utilized bamboo to construct the hilts of their katana blades. Even the scabbards for the weapons were constructed from bamboo.