The FTC has determined that textiles derived from bamboo fiber cannot be labeled as bamboo or cellulose, but must be labeled as rayon due to the manufacturing process used. The determination has implications for many more everyday products, including the household sponge. By Seetha Coleman-Kammula

In November 2009, the FTC charged several companies with 'Bamboo-zling' consumers with false product descriptions and unsubstantiated “green” claims. The FTC report said that Bamboo cloth can not be labeled as cellulose but should be labeled Rayon.  The full article at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/08/bamboo.shtm declares that though the making of the cloth starts with cellulose - the basic building block in bamboo and for that matter all wood - it is converted into rayon in an industrial process that uses chemicals that the FTC describes as “hazardous air pollutants”. The settlements bar these companies from claiming that any product that is made of bamboo or bamboo fiber is manufactured using an environmentally friendly process; or is antimicrobial or retains the anti-microbial properties of the product from which it is made, unless the claims are true, not misleading, and substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence.

This ruling has implications for yet another everyday tool we all use everyday - household sponge and sponge cloth.  Several new introductions to the sponge arena are being marketed as green, eco-friendly, all natural and from sustainably grown forests etc., while the basic process for making these sponges is the same as that of the bamboo cloth. Here is a schematic of the basic manufacturing process.  

Cellulose from Bamboo in the case of the cloth or from wood in the case of sponges is steeped in a solution of caustic soda (or sodium hydroxide) for enough time to convert some of it into soda cellulose. The soda cellulose is squeezed to remove excess caustic soda and shredded to make it easier to process. This shredded cellulose is often referred to as “white crumb”.It is then aged in contact with air to degrade the cellulose. The aged white crumb is placed into a vessel called a churn and treated with carbon disulfide. The soda cellulose reacts with this chemical to form cellulose xanthate – which is called “yellow crumb”. It is then dissolved in caustic soda to give a very viscous solution and hence the term “viscose”. Up to this point of making viscose, the steps are roughly the same for sponges and bamboo fibers. For making fibers the viscose is forced through a spinneret, a device resembling a shower head with many small holes. As the viscose exits the spinneret, it comes in contact with a solution of sulfuric acid, sodium sulfate and Zinc. The result is the formation of fine filaments or fibers of regenerated cellulose called rayon.

For making sponges, viscose and sodium hydroxide are mixed together with an expanding agent such as sodium sulfate in roughly 5 parts to a part of viscose. The resulting paste is kneaded and placed in steel molds and heated to about 100 degrees centigrade to make the foams which are then washed in cold water, bleached, washed and dried.  

The quantities of chemicals used are not small either. Typically for 100 Kilograms of cellulose, it takes about 45 Kilograms of carbon disulfide to get to the point of making viscose. Though the carbon disulfide is not consumed as such and is recovered with some losses during the regeneration step, can such synthetic processes and products be called green, eco-friendly and all-natural?

For me the issue is not whether these chemicals are toxic and bad for our health. Scientific community, regulators, and producers of chemicals take decades to agree as the scientific data is complex and contradictory. The issue is incomplete disclosure of information and being partial with the truth. Many consumers believe that because these new sponges start out with cellulose, a natural product from trees and are called cellulose sponges they must be good for them and for the planet. If big Brands want to call themselves sustainable, they should give all scientific information in a language consumers can understand and then leave it to them to make informed choices. Not doing it will only result in erosion of consumer’s trust and eventually their bottom line.

Dr. Seetha Coleman-Kammula is one of the founding partners of Simply Sustain, a management consulting company dedicated to making organizations profitable by strategic use of natural resources without leaving a legacy of waste. She has more than 25 years of experience first at Royal Dutch Shell, and later at Basell, a Shell BASF Joint Venture. Seetha currently sits on the Sustainability advisory board of Dow Chemical Company and has been actively engaged leading an end to end value chain collaboration geared toward conserving energy and materials.