Empty Nesters on a Green Global Trek

CO2 BAMBU hit a key product developoment milestone last week, as we invited Costa Rican bamboo experts to come and boost our Nicaraguan team’s knowledge of bamboo processing. The area we wanted to focus on was the production of bamboo laminates or boards.

Until this week, CO2 BAMBU’s industrial activity was limited to the production of trellises. The bamboo culms behind Ben have been pre-cut and are about to be transformed into trellises for California, Oregon and Florida growers. The finished product will look like this:

CO2 BAMBU’s challenge is to develop products that can be sold on the U.S. market for non-structural construction industry products. These include flooring, counter tops, cabinets, doors, windows etc… Chinese producers are large companies with extensive investments in capital equipment. Our challenge is to come to market with a low tech, rustic but high quality laminates. As of this week, we have done just that.

 “And how do you get bamboo boards from bamboo culms”, you ask?

First step – cut the culms in small strips of bamboo “wood”.

Second step – stack up strips and glue

Third step – Press bamboo strips together create laminate board

Fourth step – Fill in gaps with bamboo saw dust and apoxy to yield a smooth bamboo”board” that can be cut into any size or shape.

So there you have it folks, feel free to vote. Want more pics of a) kittens and dogs, b) vixen with plunging necklines, c) architecture or d) bamboo business updates?