Chicago, IL – The FTC recently accused four companies of making false and/or misleading claims about their bamboo textile products. Green Earth Bamboo, through Green Earth News, sets the record straight.
FTC says: Bamboo cannot be a fiber. If bamboo is used to make a fiber, then it must be called viscose/rayon from bamboo.
The reality: There is no past precedence set for the proper characterization of bamboo fabric, and this is not uncommon with new products (textile or otherwise). It seems, though, that the FTC has independently decided that bamboo fabrics or fibers cannot be referred to as “bamboo fiber” or “100% bamboo.” Instead, they have concluded that it has to be described as “viscose from bamboo” or “rayon from bamboo.” These are very recent developments, not government issued criteria that was put in place years ago. Prior to this, the US Customs Department was allowing bamboo fiber to come into the country as “bamboo fiber”.
The FTC would have you believe that these companies engaged in malicious, deliberate and misleading descriptions of their products, and nothing could be further from the truth. Green Earth Bamboo decided to put “viscose from bamboo” in their product descriptions a few months ago because they discovered in their research, that this was likely going to be a future requirement.
FTC says: Fibers from bamboo do not have any anti-microbial properties.
The reality: There have been a handful of antimicrobial tests done in Japan, China and the US, which dispute this FTC allegation. When presented with independent test data, the FTC refused to accept it or acknowledge it and deemed it inconclusive. Not long after, they began their current campaign of refuting any anti-microbial properties--while providing no test data of their own as evidence to back up their theory.
FTC says: Textile fiber products will not completely break down and return to nature, i.e., decompose into elements found in nature, within a reasonably short period of time.
The reality: The very definition of biodegradable is a process that stipulates no exact time frame. The problem is not in that businesses are misrepresenting their biodegradable products. It is that the government has yet to come up with a solution to solve our overabundance of trash. This begs the question, “Are business owners responsible for trying to produce eco-friendly and biodegradable products to help in this environmental fight for a greener earth, but not allowed to claim their products as biodegradable?
There are certainly some big players--both in and out of the textile industry--who don’t want bamboo to continue to grow in popularity the way that it has over the last few years. But, without regard to the “eco-friendly”
In the bamboo case, Green Earth Bamboo feels the FTC has done a grave injustice to the bamboo textile industry by presenting unfounded “facts” to the public without providing any evidence to back up their “theories.”
To learn more about the natural qualities and uses of bamboo, visit Green Earth News at http://blog.greenearthbamboo.com.
