By Siel Ju

If bamboo T-shirts are a proud part of your wardrobe, here's news that'll alarm your green fashion sense: Your bamboo clothes may not be as eco-friendly as you thought. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission recently sent out a consumer alert warning people not to get "bamboozled by bamboo fabrics"-and charged four bamboo-friendly companies with "deceptive labeling and advertising."

Why? While many eco-fashion companies sell clothes with tags that read "Made of bamboo," the FTC says that this label misleads customers. Turning bamboo into silky-smooth fabric requires a not-at-all-green chemical process-the exact process that creates regular rayon fabrics from other cellulose sources like pine and eucalyptus. And all fabrics made through this process, according to the FTC, should be called rayon-with tags that say "Made of rayon," or at most, "Made of rayon from bamboo."

Because of the chemical processing, the FTC alleges that most so-called "bamboo fabrics" are not eco-friendly, anti-microbial, or biodegradable-despite the fact that companies selling these products often make all those green claims. Did these companies purposefully greenwash their products?

The answer is actually much more complex than the FTC's alert describes. While the chemical processing of bamboo may be news to some, many eco-fashionistas were already well aware about this un-green part of the fabric manufacturing process-often because the companies selling the "rayon from bamboo" products themselves spelled out bamboo's downsides. In fact, both Pure Bamboo and Bamboosa-two of the four companies charged by the FTC-have long made the chemical processing aspect of their fabrics clear, prominently displaying the information on their websites alongside other, more eco-friendly aspects of their products and manufacturing process.

Still, according to sustainable textiles expert Coral Rose, the marketing of the products was misleading to consumers. Whether or not companies intended to deceive consumers, many people today have a too-green perception of rayon made from bamboo, Rose says, falsely believing the fabric to be much more eco-friendly than rayon made from other sources.

Companies like Bamboosa contend rayon made from bamboo can still be a more eco-friendly product than most of what's on the market. Sure, some companies selling rayon from bamboo have claimed "a totally green process that's not true of anything," says Morris Saintsing, a partner at Bamboosa. But Saintsing points out his company has always educated customers about the chemical processing bamboo goes through. Plus, Bamboosa's gone out of its way to make sure the bamboo that goes into making its rayon comes from certified organic farms. And while that bamboo is grown and processed in China, the fibers are then sent to South Carolina to be spun, knitted, dyed, and sewn into T-shirts-creating local jobs while reducing travel miles. Don't all those environmental efforts allow Bamboosa to call its products eco-friendly?

Not according to Rose, though her stance isn't limited to rayon from bamboo. Calling any textile product eco-friendly would be "vague and incorrect," Rose says. "The apparel supply chain is complex," and using such vague terms only confuses, and at worst deceives, the would-be eco-consumer. This, Rose says, is what's happened with rayon from bamboo. 

Certainly, the anti-microbial and biodegradable claims appear to be overblown. While Saintsing contends that research his company commissioned-and bits of research he found on the web-shows rayon from bamboo to have superior anti-microbial properties, he couldn't point to any peer-reviewed, scientific publications claiming the same. Saintsing also said he didn't know if rayon from bamboo is more readily biodegradable than rayon from other cellulose sources or other fabrics like cotton.

Still, rayon made from bamboo can't just be categorically considered un-eco, says Saintsing, who calls on consumers to take a closer look at individual company practices. "This is the thing that kills me, is when somebody says, ‘Organic cotton is better than bamboo,'" Saintsing says. "Well, you don't even have enough information to make that decision! Certainly, organic cotton grown in Texas and spun and dyed and finished and cut and sewn in Texas will have a smaller environmental footprint than bamboo processed in China into a garment and shipped over here. But our product, once [the fiber gets to South Carolina], moves no more than a total 150 miles. That's a better product than organic cotton grown in Turkey, shipped to China for processing, back to Vietnam to be sewn up, and back to the U.S. to be sold."

Rose too agrees that gauging the sustainability of any textile requires a big-picture perspective. "Of course producing a regional product like one that is grown, produced, manufactured and sold in the U.S. would certainly support the U.S. economy and reduce the carbon involved in transport, etc," Rose says. "This is a complex process which requires a carbon footprint analysis and consideration of tradeoffs."

After all, all items of clothing have an environmental impact. Magda Rod, owner of an environmentally-focused boutique in Los Angeles called Visionary, says she carries Linda Loudermilk and The Battalion pieces made with rayon from bamboo, in part because she believes the "sustainability of the bamboo [plant] itself" matters. "I understand that the processing of it is not as environmentally friendly as everyone would like it to be," Rod says, "and it's a matter of weighing all of it to come down to what the true carbon footprint is." Rod tries to make the greenest buying decisions possible by researching companies and products in depth-and meeting with designers and suppliers in person.

What can an eco-fashionista to wear now? Would-be green dressers simply have to ask more questions, going beyond simply looking at clothing tags. If the prospect of putting every fashion item you buy through a battery of questions overwhelms you, remember: Reducing and reusing the closet you've got is the greenest, and easiest, fashion move you can make.