Can Bamboo Be Used For Paper Making?

It is possible to use bamboo fibres to make paper and it would form an alternative to wood, which takes much longer to replenish, but there are sound environmental reasons why this would not really be a good idea.

Bamboo, a member of the grass family, grows well under tropical conditions in Asia and South America. Long, thin bamboo fiber makes superior papers of all kinds and is an important raw material for the paper industry in India and China. For large scale production, supply cannot be guaranteed however, as the plant's life cycle can be a bit unpredictable. The bamboo stems also have hard nodes and a high silica content, which creates problems in mechanised processing.

Recently, harvesting bamboo as an alternative to wood in paper making has been criticised by environmentalists who see it as more important to  preserve bamboo forests, which are home to such animals as the panda in China and the tiger in India.