Industrial Hemp: Plastic

Hemp plastic sounds like a material of the future: lightweight, durable, biodegradable, a potential replacement for many petrochemical plastics which is much less environmentally damaging to produce. However, hemp plastic is actually not a new development in industrial hemp applications. The earliest plastics relied on hemp as a component due to its high level of cellulose, the substance that makes the walls of plant cells. These types of plastics are now known as 'bioplastics' to distinguish them from materials based on petrochemicals.

Hemp Plastic Products for The 21st Century
Currently, the amount of hemp plastic products commercially available is somewhat limited, mainly due to the restrictions on growing industrial hemp (and all other forms of cannabis) in most of the world. However, there are companies making great progress in bringing hemp plastic into mainstream use for items such as CD and DVD cases, consumer electronics, and even musical instruments. Examples of these can be seen in the Hash Marijuana & Hemp Museum, and one of the highlights of the Collection is an electric guitar with a body made entirely from hemp plastic.

Hundreds of Uses
Celluloid, as is clear from its name, is made from cellulose and was one of the first plastics. It was developed in 1869 as an alternative to ivory, supplies of which were becoming limited, and was initially used for billiard balls. As manufacturers began to experiment with different formulas hundreds of new uses were discovered, including packaging materials, tubing, telephone handsets, electrical insulation, football helmets, and of course cellophane.

The Most Efficient Crop for Bioplastics
Once the fibres have been removed from the hemp stalks, the leftover hurds are 77% cellulose, making hemp the most efficient crop for plant-based biodegradable plastics. Wood yields only 40% to 50% cellulose. Cotton yields up to 90% but cannot compete with industrial hemp in terms of harvest per square metre, speed of growth and environmental friendliness.
Unfortunately, just as the plastics industry was really beginning to take off, the prohibition of hemp and the demonisation of cannabis under the name ‘marijuana’ halted research into its potential as a base component.

The Revival of Hemp Plastic
In the last few years, hemp plastic has enjoyed a revival which is still gaining momentum. More forward-thinking industries have turned their attention to environmentally friendly products and practices, realising that the long term damage to our planet is not worth any short term gain offered by unsustainable industry. One of the things that made plastic so popular was its low cost to the consumer, so big businesses concerned purely with profit are now being forced to explore alternatives if they want to retain customers, since supplies of cheap oil - the base ingredient for petrochemical plastics - are beginning to dwindle, which must drive up the price of the end product.

Henry Ford's Hemp Car
One of the more famous uses of hemp plastic is probably Henry Ford's experimental plant-based plastic car which used a formula of 70% cellulose fibres from hemp, straw, and sisal. The car was created in 1941,during the temporary re-legalisation of hemp, with the intention of helping American farmers by using their crops to create a car they could afford. A year later, the same farmers would be encouraged to grow hemp for the war effort in a film called 'Hemp For Victory'. Sadly the hemp plastic car was not put into mass production.
The other 30% of Ford's hemp plastic formula was a resin 'binder'. Binding agents for hemp plastic can be made from natural materials, including oil from hemp seeds. Modern hemp plastics have even been produced using waste paper and sugar as binding agents.

Reducing Global Warming
Hemp plastic, like all durable hemp products and other plant-based building materials, also 'locks in' carbon. Hemp crops absorb CO₂ as they grow, retaining the carbon (the basic element of all plants and animals) and releasing the oxygen. The harvested hemp is essentially made from carbon absorbed from the atmosphere and when hemp is used to make materials that last for a long time, this carbon is prevented from reentering the atmosphere as CO_2. This ability helps combat global warming, whereas the production of petrochemical plastics creates large CO₂ emissions and toxic by-products.