Everything You Need to Know About Bamboo Paper Towels

With the skyrocketing levels of global warming, it is high time to bid farewell to ecologically irresponsible habits and accept green living and sustainable practices. Be it major changes like energy conservation or simple upgrades like replacing wood paper towels with bamboo paper towels, and replacing single-use paper towels with reusable bamboo paper towels; every effort makes a difference.

But before you make the switch, let’s discuss what makes this upgrade worthwhile and how bamboo paper towels can make house chores much simpler and more hygienic.

Bamboo Paper Towels: What are they made of?

Bamboo paper towels are a reusable version of paper towels that protect the environment while keeping your house clean and saving you money that would otherwise be spent on weekly paper towel shopping.

Bamboo towels are composed just like other paper towel types. Then what makes them environment-friendly? The base used in composing the paper. Bamboo paper towels are made from bamboo, a grass that is grown much quicker than trees. Bamboo is harvested and broken down into smaller pieces. These pieces are heated with chemicals to separate the fibers from other particles in the bamboo. The extracted fibers are then converted into pulp, which is bonded, flattened, and dried to create bamboo paper towels.

Are Bamboo Paper Towels Actually Sustainable?

Bamboo paper towels are made of grass that grows rapidly, unlike other plants that contribute to significant deforestation. Bamboo requires minimal fertilizers and pesticides. It can be grown in an eco-friendly manner and plays a major role in protecting the environment.

The cherry on the cake is that if these paper towels are thrown away, they will eventually biodegrade. So bamboo paper towels reduce your carbon footprint at every step, from production to disposal!

Qualities of Bamboo Paper Towels

One of the most obvious and loved qualities of bamboo paper towels is that they are eco-friendly to produce and sustainable to use around the home. But what else makes them a favorite among households? Here’s the answer.

• Offer great durability and strength,sometimes even better than traditional paper towels.
• Provide antibacterial properties to help inhibit the growth of bacteria and reduce odor.
• Feel soft to the touch. They are super gentle when used as a face towel, hand towel, or baby burp cloth.
• Serve as a highly absorbent materialand work great when used to clean up spills.
• Carry hypoallergenic propertiesto make the material perfect for people with sensitive skin.
• Require fewer chemicals in the production process,which helps reduce the environmental impact and makes the fabric a safer option to be used indoors.

Clever Ways to Use Bamboo Paper Towels

Put your tree-free bamboo paper towels to smart use with clever ideas to amp up the incredible benefits of this reusable and eco-friendly material.

Remove Stubborn Wax Stains

Left a crayon in a car on a hot day or accidentally melted candle wax on your favorite rug? Worry not; bamboo paper towels are here to save the day. Use a bamboo paper towel to cover the stain, and place a hot iron over the towel to melt the wax. Wipe it off, and poof, the stain will disappear!

Save Icing From Drying Out

Struggling with keeping icing fresh and creamy? Bakers, we’ve got your back. Grab a damp bamboo paper towel and lay it in the bottom of a glass. Place your bag of icing in the glass tip down. If you want to store icing in a fridge, wrap a damp bamboo paper towel around the tip of the bag before placing it in another bag.

Test Old Seeds

What’s more frustrating than planting seeds and caring for them to later find out the seeds were non-viable? Bamboo paper towels can save you a lot of time and effort. All you have to do is place the seeds in a damp bamboo paper towel and see if they sprout in a few weeks. If they do, you’re ready to plant the rest of the pack in your garden.

Clean Your Sewing Machine

Bamboo paper towels can save your sewing projects from being ruined by residual grease. After tuning, thread the machine and stitch across a bamboo paper towel to get rid of leftover grease. Your machine is now ready to prepare perfect handmade gifts for your loved ones.

Soften Brown Sugar

Brown sugar tends to clump into blocks and makes it difficult to be scooped up. To remedy this, place a damp bamboo paper towel over the hard clumps and leave it there overnight. The sugar can then be broken down into its original powdery form in the morning.

Keep Your Cutting Board in Place

A sliding cutting board is not only annoying but also puts you at the risk of chopping your finger. So before you start dicing and slicing your fruits and vegetables, make sure to place two bamboo paper towels beneath the cutting board to increase friction and reduce unnecessary movement.

Best Bamboo Paper Towels   

Practically, the best bamboo paper towels should include some wood pulps (cellulose is the primary composition) based on scientific study [1]. The water absorption behavior and mechanical properties of bamboo pulp-based tissue paper can be improved by adding some wood pulps (mainly cellulose) in the paper towel manufacturing process.

The hypotheses are that: (1) cellulose fibers themselves possess large specific surface area

and abundant hydroxyl groups as well, thus enhancing the hydrophilicity of tissue paper; and (2) the added cellulose fibers can form 3D structures in tissue paper, thus providing abundant pores with uniform small size, which would facilitate the capillary effect for water absorption; and (3) more hydrogen bonds will be formed between cellulose fibers and bamboo fibers, thus improving the strength properties of tissue paper. The results from water absorption and tensile strength tests of bamboo hand sheets indicated that the addition of cellulose fibers can increase the water absorption capacity from 6.6 to 8.7 g/g when the cellulose fiber dosage was 10 wt% (based on the dried pulp). The water retention value of prepared bamboo fibers increased from 163 to 190% at the same cellulose dosage, the tensile index increased from 18.5 to 24.5 N m/g as well.

Figure 1. a) Water absorption of bamboo hand sheets b) Water retention value of bamboo fiber- cellulose nano fibers (CNF) mixtures; c) the bulk of bamboo hand sheets and d) tensile index as functions of CNF dosage, respectively. [1]

Figure 2. Hydrogen bonding and pores formed between bamboo fiber- cellulose nano fibers (CNF) [1]

Figure 3. More cellulose nano fibers (CNF) in the bamboo fibers give better water absorption [1]

Best Paper Towel Dispensers for Bamboo Paper Towels

Maximize sustainability by pairing reusable bamboo paper towels with eco-friendly paper towel dispensers. While many brands are now accepting and promoting environment-consciousness in their products, Cozee-Bay offers one of the best paper towel dispenser collections — which comes in a wide range of colors and different materials to complement your aesthetic. Be it a black dispenser to create an attractive accent in your bathroom or a sleek white dispenser to complete your minimal kitchen, the versatile Cozee-Bay collection has got you covered.

Additionally, the dispensers are:

• Made of eco-friendly materials (100% natural bamboo material).
• Have an innovative design to avoid cross-contamination
• Offer dual dispensing so that they can be mounted on the wall or placed on a countertop, depending on the available space.

So grab yours now — and fill them with the bamboo paper towels to give your home the much-needed green and sustainable upgrade 🌿

References 

[1] Min Guan . Xingye An . Hongbin Liu  “Cellulose nanofiber (CNF) as a versatile filler for the preparation of bamboo pulp based tissue paper hand sheets”, Volume 26, pages 2613–2624, (2019)