A Sustainable Future

The perfect fiber could be the answer to our prayers

The relationship between hemp, cannabis and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component every patient knows and appreciates, is enough to make it mostly illegal in the United States of America. Cannabis is already a very bad thing to the federal government, but hemp is equally outlawed because despite its almost comprehensive usefulness, the plant still has very low amounts of THC.

The plastic items and containers we use are corrosive to our environment to produce, difficult to reuse and once thrown into a landfill, the ocean or anywhere else on the planet millennia will pass before it degrades. Plastic derived from hemp can replace everything we use, from Styrofoam coffee cups to the rings that hold cans when you buy a six pack at the supermarket. A field of hemp requires almost no toxic pesticides to grow and does so at a faster rate than trees. With a THC content of less than one percent compared to cannabis, it is nearly impossible to become intoxicated with the material, although growing hemp is still illegal for most citizens in America.

The true power, durability and usefulness of the material stems from the fact that it’s made of plant fibers. While the fake plastic we create might come close to nature, the real secret is that normal hemp is made from cellulose, the same organic creation that gives wood like oak and ash its strength.

Once the cellulose is rendered, a process that is cheap, easy and a lot nicer to the environment than anything involving harsh petrochemicals, it’s relatively simple to turn it into an incredibly strong, non-toxic material that can be used to make water bottles, billiard balls and even as a chassis for automobiles.

One Austrian company called Zellform (www.zelfo-technology.com) has already patented a cellulose material composed of hemp, flax and straw. They call their creation “Zelfo,” and use it to make everything from bowls to stereo speakers to office furniture. Because of the fact Zelfo is also water and weatherproof (thanks to the hemp cellulose ingredients derived from their stalks) Zellform is already looking into other markets for their substance.

Another corporation, Hemp Plastic (www.hempplastic.com), has mastered an injection molding process for their version which is tough, affordable and completely biodegradable, thanks to fact that its all-natural. They claim that their product is five times harder than conventional plastic and is twice as durable, without the usual health risks. Hemp Plastic currently offers 100 percent hemp boxes, bowls, CD cases and even didgeridoos for the musically inclined.

Henry Ford, the father of the modern American automobile, constructed his first Model-T Ford out of hemp plastic. Lighter and far cheaper to produce than anything else on the road at the time, the vehicle had side panels that were 10 times stronger than steel. Produced in 1908, the machine even ran on hemp oil, as opposed to petroleum-based gasoline. One hundred years later, it’s time to turn what’s currently illegal into something that can benefit the economy and the country, again.

Did you know?

Different kinds of plastic can degrade at different times, but the average time for a plastic bottle to completely degrade is at least 450 years. It can even take some bottles 1000 years to biodegrade! That’s a long time for even the smallest bottle. 90 percent of bottles aren’t even recycled. Makes you think twice about that water or soda, right? Bottles made with Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) will never biodegrade. And there are even more reasons to lay off the plastic bottles: about 1.5 million barrels of oil are used every year to make the bottles, and even more oil is burned transporting them. Most of the time, the water inside the bottles has more contaminants than regular old tap water, meaning you could be drinking some serious problems. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has more strict standards on tap water than the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does for bottled water, which is something to think about when you’re thirsty! And those reusable bottles? Make sure you’re not a collector, because those will never biodegrade.