07-01-2010 Greenopolis: Asus announces bamboo laptop, environmental benefits questioned

Excerpt from the Greenopolis article and comments;

Asus announces eco-friendly bamboo laptop.

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By using industrial-strength bamboo, the laptop reduces e-waste bamboo can of course be recycled - even the trackpad is made out of bamboo! Interestingly enough, part of the manufacturing process includes screening the bamboo for parasites.

"We spent the last couple of years perfecting and working with bamboo," said Jonney Shih, Chairmen of ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated (ASUS). "It is trendy yet responsible."

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[from the comments]

The problem with bamboo when used in that way is that it is not environmentally friendly at all; rather the opposite. It takes a lot of energy to turn the round bamboo halves into sheets and then it takes glue and other substances for the rest of the process. Not green at all but greenwash.

When bamboo is used the way it used to be used by the natives in the countries whence it comes as containers, and other things, then there was no problem. Those goods were made by hand without the use of energy and glues and the likes.

However, having the shell of the laptop made of bamboo - and, BTW, it is not a full bamboo case anyway - we are talking of a process that is the same as making flooring from bamboo; namely a lamination process. Not very green at all, methinks.