Q: I’m just starting on my holiday gift shopping and I need a bit of guidance for one particular item. I thought my nephew, an environmental science major, might appreciate a bamboo fabric sheet set. Even though he’s a freshman and has only been away at college for a few months, I thought extra sheets and pillowcases might come in handy since god knows what they do in dormitories these days.

A: First off, as someone who graduated from college during this decade, I can tell you that I don’t think your nephew has already fashioned his only pair of sheets into a toga or set them ablaze in the quad. (If he has, I guess I wasn’t invited to the right parties.)

The companies falsely claim that their rayon clothing and other textile products are “100 percent bamboo fiber.” They market them under such names as “ecoKashmere,” “Pure Bamboo,” “Bamboo Comfort” and “BambooBaby.” Rayon is a man-made fiber created from the cellulose found in plants and trees and processed with a harsh toxic chemical that releases hazardous air pollutants. Any plant or tree could be used as the cellulose source — including bamboo — but the fiber that is created is rayon.

 

The complaints also allege that these four companies make a number of other “green” claims about their clothing and textile products, none of which are true or substantiated. All four companies claim their products retain the bamboo plant’s antimicrobial properties. The settling companies — Jonäno, Mad Mod, and Pure Bamboo — also claim that their products are made using environmentally friendly manufacturing processes, and both Pure Bamboo and Bamboosa make unqualified claims that their products are biodegradable, and that they will completely break down and return to the elements found in nature in a reasonably short period of time after customary disposal. Rayon products are not biodegradable because they will not break down in a reasonably short time after customary disposal. Most clothing and textiles are disposed of either by recycling or sending to a landfill. Neither method results in quick biodegradation.

 

Rayon also does not retain any natural antimicrobial properties of the bamboo plant. The rayon manufacturing process, which involves dissolving the plant source in harsh chemicals, eliminates any such natural properties of the bamboo plant.