Versatility of bamboo knows no bounds

Amid the lush mountains of Chizhou, in Anhui province, over 41,333 hectares of bamboo stretch toward the sky, representing not just a vibrant landscape, but a burgeoning economic engine fueled by green innovation.

Bridging the gap between environmental conservation and industrial growth, Chizhou is actively implementing the national "bamboo replacing plastic" initiative. Following the National Development and Reform Commission's 2023 plan to establish a robust bamboo-for-plastic industrial system by 2025, the city has embraced reforms to upgrade this traditional sector using digital and green technologies, aligning with the national strategy to develop new quality productive forces.

Historically, despite being a key forest area, Chizhou's bamboo industry has faced challenges such as low utilization rates and primitive harvesting methods. To address this, the city issued guidelines in 2021 to prioritize bamboo projects in rural vitalization, establishing a network of primary processing sites to solidify the industry's foundation.

"In the past, this mountain was largely unattended. Bamboo was either made into simple furniture or left to rot," said Hu Desheng, head of a bamboo processing base in Meijie town. "Now, the village has built two plants capable of processing 3,500 metric tons of bamboo annually. The bamboo in the mountains has finally found its true value."

Currently, the city has established 20 specialized bamboo strip plants with an annual supply capacity exceeding 100,000 tons. The price of bamboo has risen to 800 yuan ($116) per ton, significantly boosting farmers' incomes.

Moving up the value chain, local enterprises are unlocking the diverse potential of bamboo through "smart" transformation. At a leading local company, rough bamboo is transformed into over 170 types of products. In the workshop, raw materials undergo 18 precision steps, including intelligent sorting and ultrasonic cleaning, to become standardized straws.

"Plastic was once ubiquitous for its convenience. To replace it, developing new quality productive forces is key," said Yin Mingliang, chairman of Hongye Group.

Yin noted that the company pivoted its strategy in 2017, hiring four PhD teams and investing over 10 million yuan in research and development. By 2020, they successfully developed intelligent drilling machines, solving the technical bottleneck of mass production.

"Currently, our annual production capacity for bamboo straws reaches 2 billion, with products sold globally. In 2024 alone, the output value hit 1.02 billion yuan, with self-run exports reaching $60 million," Yin added. The company has secured numerous patents and led the formulation of national and international standards for bamboo drinking straws.

Beyond manufacturing, Chizhou is pioneering a zero-waste approach. In the company's green low-carbon smart circular industrial park, the country's first complete set of full-bamboo resource pyrolysis equipment turns waste into treasure.

"We used to utilize only 30 percent of a bamboo pole. Now, waste scraps are processed into activated carbon, hard carbon anode materials for solid-state batteries and biochar fibers," said Yang Dezhen, the company's deputy general manager, explaining that steam generated during pyrolysis is reused to cut energy costs.

The city has built a complete industrial model linking leading enterprises, circular parks and rural cooperatives. This model is now being replicated in other cities like Huangshan, Anqing, and Xuancheng. In 2024, Chizhou's bamboo industry output value exceeded 3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26 percent.

"Looking ahead, we will use reform as a driving force to deepen the development of the 'bamboo replacing plastic' and bamboo charcoal deep processing industries," said Yao Li, deputy director of the key project coordination and management division of the Chizhou Development and Reform Commission. "We expect that by 2030, the annual output of bamboo straws in Chizhou will reach 30 billion, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1 million tons."