Bamboo fabric and greenwashing: what science says about bamboo viscose in clothing

Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants on earth, requires hardly any pesticides, and is often presented by the fashion industry as the green alternative to cotton and synthetic fabrics. Sounds good — but the scientific reality behind bamboo clothing is far less appealing. This is because almost all bamboo clothing you find in stores is not made from the bamboo plant itself. It is bamboo viscose: a chemically produced synthetic fiber where toxic substances are released during the production process, harmful to humans and the environment. In this article, we explain step-by-step how this works, what scientific research says about it, and what consumers can truly trust.

From plant to fabric: a chemically intensive process

The bamboo plant itself has real ecological advantages. It grows rapidly without pesticides, requires little water, and absorbs a lot of CO₂ from the atmosphere.^[1] Sounds ideal. The problem arises when you want to convert that bamboo plant into a soft, wearable fabric. The cellulose – the fiber in the plant – is so rigid that it cannot simply be mechanically spun into yarn. This requires heavy chemicals.

The process goes like this: bamboo pulp is first soaked in sodium hydroxide (caustic soda, NaOH), then treated with carbon disulfide (CS₂) to make the cellulose soluble. This liquid is then sprayed through fine holes into a bath of sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄), after which the fibers emerge.^[2] After all these chemical steps, virtually nothing of the original bamboo plant remains. The final product is molecularly identical to viscose made from wood or cotton – the bamboo plant as a raw material makes no difference whatsoever to the quality and composition of the final product.^[3]

Even the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) — the strictest and most authoritative certification for sustainable textiles worldwide — officially states that bamboo viscose and rayon cannot be considered a natural or organic fiber, even if the bamboo plant itself was organically grown.^[4]

Carbon disulfide: a toxic substance with proven health damage

One of the chemicals used in viscose production deserves extra attention: carbon disulfide, or CS₂. This is a colorless, volatile liquid that has been known for decades as a serious health risk to people who come into contact with it. The American toxicological institute ATSDR — part of the government agency CDC — has officially classified CS₂ as a substance that demonstrably can damage the nervous system, heart, and reproductive system.^[5]

Long-term scientific research on factory workers in the viscose industry consistently shows the same serious effects:

• Nerve damage (peripheral neuropathy) — permanent damage to the nerves in hands and feet. This is the most common and sensitive effect of CS₂ exposure, according to the ATSDR.^[5]
• Heart disease and higher mortality from cardiovascular diseases — a Finnish cohort study that followed workers for 15 years showed significantly more deaths from heart disease among viscose workers than among people who did not work with CS₂.^[6]
• High blood pressure — a Taiwanese study of 251 rayon workers found high blood pressure in 43.4% of the exposed group, compared to only 7.1% in the control group.^[7]
• Neurological and psychiatric complaints — long-term exposure has been linked to symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease, as well as psychosis and cognitive decline.^[5]
• Damage to reproductive capacity — increased chances of miscarriages, reduced sperm quality, and menstrual disorders have been documented in multiple studies.^[8]

A comprehensive scientific review in Critical Reviews in Toxicology by Gelbke et al. (2009) summarizes it: the most relevant health damages from CS₂ include heart disease, cardiovascular risk factors, damage to blood vessels in the retina, nerve damage, and effects on fertility and hormones.^[8]

Working conditions in Western Europe have improved significantly in recent decades. However, a large part of bamboo viscose production does not take place here – it is mainly located in China and other parts of Asia, where regulations and enforcement are considerably more lenient. Moreover, it has been shown that traces of CS₂ and related substances even remain in the final product – the clothing – even after all post-treatment.^[9]

Environmental impact: water pollution and chemical discharges

Besides the health risks for humans, viscose production also takes a heavy toll on the environment. An extensive life cycle assessment (LCA) published in Sustainable Production and Consumption (2025) concluded that water pollution and air emissions are the largest environmental impacts of viscose fibers — caused by high chemical consumption, particularly NaOH, H₂SO₄, and CS₂.^[10]

Modern lyocell production — the technology behind brands like TENCEL™ — recovers approximately 99% of the solvents used in a closed system. In conventional viscose factories, this average is only 50%.^[11] The other half disappears into the air or water.

Research by the Changing Markets Foundation documented that large viscose factories in China, India, and Indonesia discharged untreated wastewater directly into local rivers and lakes. In addition to damage to ecosystems, villages near these factories also reported a rising number of cancer patients.^[12]

On average, 65 tons of clean water are required to produce one ton of viscose fiber. Most of the polluted water is released during the dissolution of the pulp and the spinning of the fibers.^[13]

The antibacterial effect? It no longer exists after processing

A popular selling point for bamboo clothing is that bamboo is naturally antibacterial. This is true for the living bamboo plant, which contains a natural antibacterial compound called "bamboo kun". But what happens to that property during the viscose process is another story.

A scientific study in the Journal of Consumer Sciences by Gericke and Van der Pol (2011) showed that bamboo viscose did not perform statistically better than regular viscose. There was no evidence that the antibacterial properties of the bamboo plant survive the chemical processing.^[14]

Rocky and Thompson (2019) explain why: the process chemicals — NaOH, H₂SO₄, Na₂SO₄, and CS₂ — virtually destroy all unique compounds in the bamboo plant.^[2]

Greenwashing: also a legal problem

Selling bamboo viscose as "bamboo" or "eco-bamboo" is not only misleading—in many cases, it is also not legal. The U.S. regulator FTC has fined several companies that marketed rayon products as "bamboo." In the U.S., if a product is made of rayon or viscose, it must be stated on the label—even if the raw material is bamboo.^[15]

The FTC also determined that claims about biodegradability and antibacterial properties of bamboo viscose are incorrect, as the production process negates those properties.^[15]

Bamboo lyocell: a better alternative

Bamboo lyocell — sometimes referred to as bamboo TENCEL™ — is made using a fundamentally different process with N-methylmorpholine N-oxide (NMMO), which is much less toxic than CS₂. The solvent is recovered and reused in a closed system for 98–99%.^[13] However, by far most clothing sold as "bamboo" is still ordinary viscose or rayon.^[11]

Conclusion

The bamboo plant itself is impressively sustainable. But as a raw material for clothing — through the viscose process commonly used by the industry — bamboo yields a chemically intensive product that entails demonstrable health risks for factory workers and local residents, and heavily pollutes the environment. The properties advertised for bamboo — antibacterial, skin-friendly, sustainable — simply no longer exist in the final product.

If you genuinely want to buy sustainable clothing, don't just look at the raw material on the label, but at how that fabric has been processed and what certification the product has. Certified organic cotton (GOTS) and — if you opt for cellulose fibers — bamboo lyocell with demonstrably closed-loop production, are choices that are scientifically much better substantiated than the average bamboo clothing in stores.