Hemp Packaging: Paper and Plastic

With global warming rapidly becoming an intense concern for many people, the ban on single-use plastics is becoming more widespread - from country to country.

The result of this is a huge incline of people and companies looking for an alternative, sustainable packaging option that can replace plastic.

Well, que hemp. Hemp is a bioplastic source made from a completely sustainable crop, making it a perfect alternative to plastic that is friendly to the environment and easy to produce.

Hemp plants themselves are super environmental plants that sequester carbon from the environment and convert it to oxygen - what a super plant!

How Can Hemp Be Used For Paper And Plastic?

Hemp plants will take approximately two to four months to grow so that they can be used for industrial purposes, such as paper and plastic.

The plant will then be processed into seeds and oil to be used for a multitude of things such as hemp fibre for clothing, hemp seeds for nutrition and, of course, hemp cellulose which is used for hemp plastic, dubbed as ‘high biomass’.

Additionally, hemp’s bast fibre is a wonderful and sustainable alternative to paper and cardboard and other fibre-based packaging products.

Even better, hemp can produce four times the amount of compounds that produce paper and cardboard in comparison to trees whilst also growing 10-40 times faster.

Top Reasons That Hemp Is Geared Up To Be The Best and Most Sustainable Packaging Option In The Future

Since we have established that hemp is an excellent alternative to paper and plastic, let's take a look at exactly why it is the best alternative and all of the benefits it can offer: 

• Hemp is extremely strong and very durable. In fact, hemp is 3.5 times stronger than plastic but is still lighter!
  
• Hemp packaging is much cheaper than produce than traditional plastic and paper packaging to produce. Unfortunately, due to the lack of infrastructure and resources available to produce hemp, you won't see that reflected in the market yet.
  
• Just to make hemp packaging an even more affordable option, new infrastructure doesn’t even need to be put into place. The existing moulds and infrastructure in place to produce plastic and paper are a perfect alternative for hemp. Just swap it out! 
• Last but not least, hemp is completely environmentally friendly and sustainable. To compare, plastic can take over 1000 years to decompose, whereas hemp is biodegradable and takes just 6 to 12 months to decompose.  

Hemp plastic and paper aren’t modern technology, in fact, Henry Ford actually used hemp in the body of his first car! However, due to the negativity surrounding cannabis, many governments swept this information under the rug.

But, in a positive turn of events, many big-name car companies are now including hemp fibre in their cars, such as Mercedes, and BMW, among others.