We ditched plastic packaging for deodorant lovingly wrapped in bamboo pulp and we think it’s a pretty awesome thing. Given our love for bamboo, we were pretty excited to find out that September 18th is World Bamboo Day. Celebrate with us and read about why bamboo is so great.

What’s the deal with bamboo and why is Wild packaged in it?

Bamboo pulp packaging is our eco-friendly replacement for plastic deodorant packaging. Instead of plastic that ends up in landfill or is hard to recycle, each Wild refill comes wrapped in a little sleeve of bamboo pulp. It’s completely zero waste - bamboo pulp is completely natural so can be composted or biodegraded once you’ve finished with the deodorant, leaving no trace of the refill.

Bamboo is a grass and it grows much faster than wood pulps. It’s been known to grow over half a metre a day so it can be harvested quickly, and will replenish itself just as quickly. This avoids the problem of packing made from chopping down trees that have taken hundreds of years to grow. When grown and harvested sustainably, bamboo pulp is a deforestation-free fibre.

How does it go from a bamboo shoot to bamboo pulp packaging?

Once the bamboo has been harvested, it’s chopped into chips and washed. After this, pulping begins. The bamboo chips are pulverised and cooked to break them down and isolate the fibres which will be turned into the refill packaging. The fibres are turned into a paper-like material, cut to the right size and made into the refill sleeves which you see wrapped around your deodorant. The result is a pulp which has similar properties to paper but also has strength, tear resistance and antibacterial properties.

And what happens once I’ve finished a refill?

There’s a lot of choice. The bamboo pulp is natural, meaning the bamboo sleeves are recyclable, compostable and biodegradable. Underground, our bamboo sleeves can be broken down in 6-12 months. It doesn’t need to go into an industrial composter - if you’ve got a home compost heap, that’ll do perfectly. If you want, get creative and repurpose your bamboo pulp sleeve. You could have a go at rewilding it and use it as a compostable pot to grow your own plants in. As always, we love to see photos of what you do with your empty refills!