Bamboo furniture in vogue

Although bamboo has been used in furniture for centuries in Asia, it's popularity has risen in the last few years in the western world mainly due to its sustainability characteristics.

Now bamboo is used by architects and designers for construction, for airy summer houses as well as for sturdy flooring, for furniture and design accents, even for dinnerware.

Gardeners in many regions grow bamboo for screening and greening, outdoors and indoors, and long, elegant bamboo poles serve decorative or functional purposes.

Bamboo isn't a tree, but is technically a grass, sometimes defined as a woody grass, explained Brian Funk of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, curator of the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden and of the Japanese tree-peony collection.

In size it can range from a ground cover 1 to 2 feet high, to timber bamboos topping out at 75 feet or so. "Depending on the climate, the stems could get to a diameter of 8 to 10 inches."

Its fast regrowth makes it a sustainable plant that can be harvested repeatedly. In a favorable habitat, it could grow as fast as 1 foot in 24 hours, Funk said, and it grows back to full size in a few years. Usually stems are allowed to mature, up to about seven years, before being harvested again.

Morris Saintsing, a partner in the South Carolina-based clothing company Bamboosa, said that two years ago when it was founded, early in 2005, Bamboosa was the first company to make its own bamboo fabrics (from imported yarn and fiber) in the United States. Since then, he said, "We've experienced tremendous growth, and we have plans for significant growth over the next three years."

For furniture maker and designer Tucker Robbins, bamboo is "the No. 1 best material for the environment," in addition to being beautiful.

Bamboo is quite versatile, its stalks can be pressed into boards for tough flooring, or it can be crushed to produce fiber for super-comfy clothing, bedding and towels. Many vendors now market bamboo clothes. These vendors include Land's End that makes bamboo towels, Target that makes bamboo sheets, Bamboosa that makes baby socks.

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More on Eco-friendly products

The most fashionable color in makeup this spring may just be green.

Cosmetics companies are increasingly jumping on the eco-chic bandwagon, finding botanical ingredients to replace chemical-based ones and focusing on improving packaging practices.

Here's a look at some of the latest products claiming environmental friendliness:
* Aveda's Light the Way Earth Month Candle is packaged in leftovers, called make-readies, from the company's other printing runs that used to be discarded; the outer carton is printed with soy ink on 55 percent post-consumer recycled paper. All proceeds of the candle go to Global Greengrants for water-related projects.

The soy wax candle burns cleanly and completely, sits in a glass container made of 95 percent post-consumer recycled glass and is scented with organic Bulgarian lavender oil.
Aveda offsets about 7 million pounds of carbon emissions a year by purchasing wind energy for its manufacturing and distribution hub in Minnesota, said Mary T'Kach, Aveda's director of environmental sustainability.

* Lancome's Primordiale Cell Defense Double Performance Cell Defense and Skin Perfecting Serum. The product, which targets the symptoms of environmental stresses on the skin combines natural ingredients and those perfected in a lab.

After the serum hits the market in June, Lancome will plant a tree for each of the first 10,000 bottles sold. The company also has done a paperless press launch, creating a Web site for public relations purposes instead of using hundreds of mailers.

* Cargo's PlantLove lipstick is contained in a tube made not of plastic but of a corn-based polymer called PLA. One ear of corn will make 12 lipstick cases, according to the company, and each case biodegrades in as little as 47 days if composted.

The lipsticks themselves use an environmentally friendly recipe: meadowfoam seed oil, jojoba and shea butter and no mineral oils or petroleums. The outer packaging of the lipstick box is embedded with seeds, so if you plant the paper you can grow wildflowers.