Urban Bamboo Farms Idea Wins Sustainable Design Co
Chicago, IL, Jan. 26--A novel plan to grow bamboo on polluted lots in Chicago known as brownfields is a winner in a new sustainable design competition, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
This beats the usual "dig and haul" method that deposits the contaminated soil in a landfill. Instead, the bamboo absorbs pollutants and converts them into nutrients.
"Urban Bamboo Farms" is the idea of three master's degree candidates in urban planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago--Daniel Butt, Kevin Anderson and Abraham Madrigal.
Their brainchild was one of three prize winners at last week's Chicago Sustainable Design Initiative. It also was the "audience choice" of 250 local designers, architects, policy makers and nonprofit leaders.
Butt and Madrigal visited city-sponsored affordable "green" homes and discovered they featured bamboo flooring. It's the equivalent of expensive oak.
The trio's research found two kinds of bamboo plants, Moso and Madake, that can survive 15-below-zero winters. Seeds and small plants are available from growers in Ohio and on the West Coast.
"We can use the seed from our initial crop to increase the supply and achieve economies of scale," Butt said.
Up to eight feet tall and green, bamboo farms could change the look of Chicago's vacant lots.
"Planted in between houses, it would serve as a windbreak, reducing energy costs," Butt said. "It's like planting trees around a home."
Local low-income people could be hired to plant and maintain the crop.
More jobs would be created by factories that would produce flooring, furniture, musical instruments--anything ordinarily made of wood.
Used as a renewable building material for centuries in Asia, some types of bamboo have a greater tensile strength than steel. Bamboo reaches maturity in three to five years, compared with the 30 to 50 years needed by hardwoods.
The plant reduces runoff rates and pollutants in the water table, and is a better carbon sink than most trees. So it helps improve air and water quality.
"It also saves deforestation in other parts of the world and emissions from transporting wood to Chicago," Butt said.
