[Greenbuilding] Plybooboo

[YankeePerm at aol.com]

This topic seems to me to involve two aspects:
     1.) Plyboo as a material.   I don't see anything about this that is any 
worse than the plywood most of us used, and it is likely to be superior in 
strength.
     2.)   Importing ANYTHING from China.   Yes, I agree this is a bad 
practice for both economic and so called 'green' reasons.   There is plenty of 
bamboo growing in the USA and the plantations would expand if there were a large 
market such as an US-based plyboo factory.   While establishing a grove isn't 
quick, it is quicker than planting softwoods and much more sustainable.   Bamboo 
is a natural monocrop, or, depending on species and variety, and understory 
cover.   Figure that you start harvesting in less than 10 years after planting 
out, especially temperate species, e.g., the Phyllostachys genus.   Large 
plantations would enable pre-harvest of premium timber culms for use in bamboo 
construction and crafts prior to a general cut for plywood fiber.   The real 
limitation is labor, since each culm needs to be individually selected, leaving 
the younger culms to mature.   (A culm should be between 3 and 6 years old for 
maximum strength.)   Unlike tropical bamboos, temperate bamboos suit 
agroforestry arrangements, such as feeding foliage to ruminants, as the leaves carry 
negligible amounts of cyanide precursors.   I've seen this done as cut and carry, 
where the whole culm is removed to an adjacent pasture where the cattle 
devour the foliage and small twigs.   Then the culm can be dressed and shipped.   
Less handling can be done if culms are dressed in the grove and cattle turned 
in after harvest (in the fall to avoid damage to new growth).   This would make 
such systems more viable, economically, and would maximize the utilization of 
the land so that native forests can be unmolested to a greater degree.   
Woody trimmings too coarse for browsing would remain as mulch, which bamboo dearly 
loves.   Some fertility from the leaves would pass through the cattle into 
the grove as manure, reducing the need for fertilization.   

That would meet my definition of 'green' bamboo production and, given the 
location of a plyboo factory in the kudzu belt, minimize shipping of raw 
materials (which would have almost no factory waste) and provide an excellent 
construction material.   

Bamboo can also be grown as part of a sewage treatment marsh.   It seems that 
everyone has to do his/her own research project on this, so there are endless 
positive research papers to back this up.   One just needs to somehow short 
circuit the industrial mindset that thinks a factory is the best way to process 
organic materials.

Dan Hemenway



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