Bamboo cutting boards, a fairly recent innovation, deserve preference over all others. Once, the gold standard of cutting boards was the hardwood butcher block. Not every home kitchen had one. They tended to be, heavy, awkward, and difficult to clean. Knives will eventually scratch them up, leaving a wonderful home for bacteria.
Smaller cutting boards made of solid hard wood can be washed more easily, but if you carelessly leave them submerged in dishwater, they will crack. They have the same problem as butcher blocks with bacteria growing in the grooves left by knives. Cheap cutting boards made of particle board with a hardwood veneer--I shudder to think how unsanitary they become, and how quickly.
Plastic cutting boards don't have the same problems as wooden ones. They have the advantage of being impervious to water. You can leave them in the sink for a long time or even put them in the dishwasher. One would think that the ease of washing one would make it more sanitary than a wooden cutting board, but lab tests have not confirmed that. Plastic cutting boards also weigh less than wooden ones of the same size, or even smaller.
The light weight can be a disadvantage, because a plastic cutting board can more easily skid on the countertop. Plastic's biggest disadvantage, though, is simply that it is plastic. We have to import petrochemicals, the main ingredient of plastic, from countries opposed to our national interest. Drilling for oil, transporting it, and manufacturing anything with it all have environmental hazards. Once anything plastic gets thrown out, it causes a fresh set of environmental problems.
Bamboo cutting boards combine the advantages of wood and plastic without the environmental and health problems associated with either. Like wood, it is a natural product. It has none of the environmental hazards of plastic. Bamboo looks and feels like wood, but it's a grass. It grows very quickly. Harvesting bamboo does not kill the plant as does cutting down a tree for its wood. It is 16% harder than maple. Therefore bamboo cutting boards look and feel like hardwood. But unlike either wood or plastic, bamboo is naturally antimicrobial. Bamboo cutting boards will actually kill germs before you even start to wash them.
For more detail, see Cutting boards: wood, plastic, or bamboo?
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