“When plastics are buried in a landfill, they occupy 25 percent of all landfill space.”
Source: US Energy Information Administration
www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/saving/recycling/solidwaste/plastics.html

“The world’s annual consumption of plastic materials has increased from around 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to nearly 100 million tonnes today.”
Source: Waste Online
www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Plastics.htm

Yeah, I know the brits spell funny… “tonnes”… Ha! They invented English, and they don’t even know how to spell it!!! But I digress. We’re using all this additional plastic, and we’re not being any smarter about the way we’re producing it. Or getting rid of it. The problem with plastic is that it does not biodegrade.

We’ve found a solution. At least for common household applications traditionally assigned to plastic like garden pots, pet bowls and picnic dishes. FiberWare is composed of bamboo fiber and rice-husks–all components are FDA approved! You could eat it!!!

The upshot? These things are 100% landfill-neutral. 100% biodegradable. You’ve got to see it to believe it. These things take between two and three years to begin their decomposition. It’s after two or three years that traditional plastic items of the same utility begin to look shabby, cracked, and weather-beaten. Fiberware retires itself from service as soon as it’s no longer effective. Check out these incredible product sheets to learn more about this amazing new development in plastic-replacement technology.

Bands Marc B., Pawnshop Kings, Humanlab, Allensworth, and Kacie Yoshida will be performing live, local artists, including Jesse Miller and eVocal, will be displaying art and creating live art pieces for your viewing pleasure, DJ’s will be spinning using the power of the sun courtesy of an Akeena Solar portable system, and organic eats and drinks will be had by all. There will even be eco exhibits to view and a silent auction with original art and other sustainable items benefiting Ecofficiency.org.

Thanks to our sponsor Tru Organic Spirits, a tree will be planted for every cocktail poured making this a carbon neutral event!

Tickets are $20 and include two free drinks of your choice. You’re practically getting your money back while making a donation to a worthy cause! Buy tickets ahead of time at www.ecofficiency.org for front of the line access or simply come the night of the event. Doors are set to open at 7pm.

This is a 21+ event open to the public, so feel free to pass this invitation on to your friends. We look forward to seeing you there!!  Also, be sure to check out BambooSK8 and their 100% bamboo skateboards.

BambooBuddy has been incredibly busy working on a myriad of new bamboo-related products, which we will be happy to let you all know about in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, check out this new art piece from Shepherd Fairey.

Mark and Geoff spent Monday setting up the booth with 3 bamboo constructed walls that took nearly 3 hours to put together (don’t ask); total booth taking about 4 hours – full of bamboo fencing, candles, cutting boards, rakes, fly fishing rods, towels, bath robe, skateboards, and much more bamboo goodies.

Wyatt spent the day putting the final touches on the catalogs and brochures.  Tuesday at 9am was bright and early for the beginning of the convention, which took up nearly 5 buildings worth of various c0mpanies from tools to paint to outdoor gardening to random miscellaneous items.

To be honest, we were quite disappointed with the show arrangement as our booth was way in the back of the outdoor gardening overflow section, but not in the main section in a different hall, which had great visibility.  Nonetheless, we did get some interest from a variety of folks around the world who were interested in carrying some of our products.

Having saw Billy Mays a few times, we thought we would get him to come by and give us a shout out but we realize their is a price tag to that.

Anyhow, the show went pretty smoothly in terms of load in and load out, and the week went by fast; great job to Freeman for their logistics and planning.  We were all very exhausted after standing and talking all day at the booth and then walking around Vegas at night.

We had dinner one night at the Top of the World – a restaurant in the stratosphere at 883 feet above the ground, that rotates 360 degrees; the view was amazing.  Another night we all had the delicious buffet at the Mandalay Bay.  We also visited 2 Lowes stores, 1 of which carries our fencing.

All in all, we look forward to next year and hope to see you there.

BambooBuddy will be featuring our bamboo fencing at the 2009 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas on May 5-7th.  You can find us at booth #31756, in the Lawn & Garden New Exhibitor Pavilion located in the Central Hall.   www.nationalhardwareshow.com

kindly,

BambooBuddy

It grows fast.

• Bamboo is not a tree—it’s a grass, and it grows like one. Many species of bamboo can grow two feet or more a day.
• When it’s harvested, it need not be replanted, because it will grow a new shoot from its extensive root system, often 4 to 5 new shoots.
• It renews itself readily, unlike hardwood trees, which, once cut, are gone forever. Canadian Maple trees take around 40-60 years to mature before they can be cut down.  Bamboo is an endless renewable resource.   

It enhances the environment.

• Farmed bamboo stabilizes the earth with its roots, preventing erosion.
• It takes in greenhouse gasses and produces oxygen. In fact 35% more oxygen than an equivalent stand of trees.
• It can also provide habitat for birds and animals (though our bamboo is not preferred by pandas, and is therefore panda-safe). 
• In nature, bamboo filters heavy metals from groundwater and removes four times more carbon dioxide from the air than an equivalent-size stand of trees.

We started the morning early at 6:45 am by loading two 53′ trailers of fencing to start, which required 4 employees; 3 of which whom are owners.  We love to take pride in each part of the process from desiging the fences to manufacturing to distribution so we didn’t mind getting our hands dirty to ensure that each package was personally inspected, loaded and signed off by us.  Each pallet contained 20 fences; 10 yellow and 10 mahogany. 

The following day we loaded another trailer and then a few days later loaded all the loose bundles which went for replenishment at the Lowes distribution center in Perris, California.  It was great to see all that product moved out of our warehouse in Oceanside, California.

We hope you enjoy our bamboobuddy fencing as much as we do; let’s feel good about using bamboo as a sustainable resource.

thank you kindly,

BambooBuddy team

Wyatt, CEO/owner

Greg, intern