“As an industrial crop, hemp has been grown either for the long fibers located in the outer layer of the plant’s stem (called “bast” fiber), for seed, or a combination of both. A secondary product of the high-quality bast fiber crop is the internal core, or “hurd,” consisting of short fibers and cellulosic biomass with a variety of industrial applications. Seed is also a valuable commodity derived from multi-purpose hemp crops.”
– March 2008 Reason Foundation Study on Hemp, Illegally Green: Environmental Costs of Hemp Prohibition. Policy Study 367, by Skaidra Smith-Heisters
• Acoustic boards for sound absorption
• Air filters. When made of hemp they are both biodegradable and
compostable
• Animal bedding
• Animal feed. Quality nutrition, as explained below.
• Artist’s canvas and paints. Rembrandt and Van Gogh painted on hemp canvas. Many oil paintings were created using paints containing hemp oil. Hemp oil paints do not contain the toxins of petroleum oil paints, and are safer for the artist.
• Bags. Billions of paper and plastic bags are used every year in America and other countries. Much of these end up in landfills or strewn throughout communities as litter. The oceans and lakes of the world are now dumping zones for billions of plastic bags, which swirl in the water, killing many varieties of marine life. Hemp fabric shopping bags can last many years, eliminating the use of paper and plastic shopping bags, saving trees, and preventing damage to the environment and wildlife. Hemp fabric is biodegradable, compostable, and nontoxic.
• Bandages and medical tape. With its natural antimicrobial properties, hemp fabric is naturally resistant to mold and mildew. Its fibers are longer than cotton, making it more ideal than cotton for bandages and medical tape.The glue on the tape can also be made from hemp oil extracts.
• Book binding and covers. Many of the first books were made using hemp paper, fabric, and board. In sixteenth-century Europe, hemp paper was common. The King James and Gutenburg Bibles were printed on hemp paper.
Hemp paper is preferred for fine books because it is strong and doesn’t yellow.
Today, because of laws that shouldn’t exist, it is difficult and expensive to get a book printed on hemp paper in the U.S., even though hemp paper is easier and cheaper to grow and produce, and more environmentally friendly than paper made from tree pulp.
Hemp also makes an excellent form of paper to recycle, and also to add to wood pulp paper. This is because hemp fiber is longer and stronger than wood fiber.
Because it is illegal to grow hemp in the U.S., any hemp paper has to be imported from other countries, or made from imported hemp material. This makes hemp paper expensive. If hemp farming were legal in the U.S., hemp paper would be far cheaper than paper made from tree pulp.
• Candles. Hemp wax candles are safer for the environment, and are cleaner to burn than petroleum wax candles.
• Canvas. Safer to grow than cotton, hemp fiber is stronger than cotton, and it takes longer to degrade in sunlight. The word “canvas” is a form of the word cannabis.
• Cardboard. There is no need to cut down forests to make cardboard when we can be using hemp pulp and hemp fiber instead of trees.
• Cellophane. Made from hemp, it is safer than cellophane made from
petroleum.
• Clothing: In addition to fabric, hemp can be used to make plasticized shoe soles, bands, fasteners, and other clothing features. Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Patagonia, Versace, Converse, and Addidas have all used hemp in their clothing lines.
• Coal. Hemp has a heating value of 5,000 to 8,000 BTU per pound and can be used in place of coal for producing electricity, greatly reducing mining, acid rain, mercury pollution, and global warming.
• Coffee filters.
• Compression molding materials. Car dashboards, kitchen countertops, hangers, storage containers, etc. Many cars in the U.S. already contain hemp material grown in other countries. These include dashboards, seat linings, insulation, mats, and fiberglass panels found in BMW, Ford, Daimler Chrysler, General Motors, Honda, Mitsubishi, Porsche, and Volkswagen vehicles.
• Concrete. A form of moldable construction stone that lasts thousands of years can be made out of hemp, and is safer for the environment than traditional concrete.
The 94 kilns used in the production of concrete in the U.S. emit tons of mercury, a neurotoxin, into the environment annually. In December 2006 the Environmental Protection Agency, under pressure from the Bush administration, refused to set standards on mercury emissions from cement kilns. Coal-fired power plants also emit tons of mercury into the atmosphere. Hemp can also replace coal. Worldwide demand for cement increases every year. (Access: EarthJustice.org)
Hempcrete is stronger, more flexible, and lighter than concrete. It is made of hemp hurd, lime (calcium hydroxide), sand, and water. It is called by various names, including hempcrete, hampstone, or Agstone. In France there is Isochanvre, which is a patented hemp cement. It demonstrates excellent insulation as well as waterproof and fireproof characteristics. It is also carbon negative because the plant absorbs greenhouse gasses as it grows, then the carbon gets locked into the hempcrete.
“In the UK, the construction and use of buildings accounts for over 50% of the carbon dioxide produced. Studies have shown that up to 200kg of CO2 is emitted in the production of each square metre of walling for houses alone – equating to 40 tonnes for the walls of a typical house.
To significantly reduce this figure, Lime Technology has launched Tradical® Hemcrete®, a new product innovation of cast in situ hemp-lime walling.
Created in partnership with Lhoist UK Castle Cement and Hemcore, three of the world’s leading authorities on lime and hemp based products, Tradical® Hemcrete® can actually reverse the damaging effects of greenhouse gases by locking up harmful CO2 emissions within wall construction.”
– Lime Technology of Britain is at the forefront of hempcrete construction; LimeTechnology.co.uk
Steve Allin, author of Building with Hemp explains that “Different mixtures are created for using the hempcrete as either attic or cavity insulation. When slightly more lime is added to this mixture, it becomes suitable to cast around a timber frame between shuttering formwork as a nonload-bearing masonry wall. With a further increase in the lime element, it can be used as an insulating floor, and when sufficient binder is incorporated to produce a sticky paste, it can be spread on a wall as a plaster or molded into decorative shapes. The phrase ‘heat store’ refers to the ability of a material to store heat, i.e., thermatic capacity. It is especially relevant to hempcrete as it is unusual for a material to both insulate and store heat.”
Some of the most ancient structures that exist today in the Mediterranean countries and in Asia contain fabricated stone material made with hemp and/or that was made in a manner similar to hempcrete. Roman stone or cement was made with clay and lime and often mixed with plant fiber.
• Cosmetics. Hemp extracts can be used in place of the toxic petrochemicals that are now used in many cosmetics and body care products, such as shampoo, balm, salves, lotions, and soaps. Emollients and lubricants made from hemp extracts are safer than those made from petroleum and coal extracts and byproducts. Why would you use cosmetics that contain cancer-causing and hormonal disrupting petroleum chemicals when you could use cosmetics containing safe hemp extracts?
• Curtains and blinds.
• Detergent. Made with hemp and/or other plant extracts, the detergent is safer than those made using petroleum. Hemp is also an ingredient in natural laundry stain removers.
• Diapers. Because hemp fabric is naturally resistant to mold and mildew and more absorbent than cotton, it is a better choice than cotton for cloth diapers. Because it is less susceptible to decomposition from UV rays, it lasts longer than cotton when the diapers hang in the sun to dry.
Hemp can also be used to make disposable diapers that are 100 percent biodegradable. Currently the manufacture of disposable diapers uses over 250,000 trees per year (for wood pulp fiber). Hemp provides more pulp per acre and is easier to grow. Hemp can also be used to make the plastics that are used in disposable diapers. Unlike plastic made from petroleum, the plastic made from hemp is 100 percent biodegradable.
• Diesel fuel. Hemp oil, or any vegetable oil, can be used to run diesel engines in place of the toxic, heavy particulate, cancer-causing petrofuels that are a major cause of global warming. When fossil fuels are burned they release carbon dioxide, contributing to global warming and the poisoning of the oceans, lakes, and rivers. The sulfur released in burning fossil fuels also contributes to acid rain.
All diesel engines can run on hemp fuel. It is a cleaner burning, nonfossil fuel that is safer for the environment than petroleum diesel fuel. An acre of hemp produces about 300 gallons of oil.
A variety of plant oils can be used in diesel engines, but hemp oil is the easiest to grow and process. If we used seed oils instead of petroleum oil for diesel engine vehicles, the air would be cleaner, not only from less toxic fuel, but also from thousands of acres of farmed plants that would provide oxygen and absorb the elements that cause global warming. The oceans and lakes would be cleaner, and the world would be a better place if we used seed oil fuel for diesel engines rather than petroleum diesel fuel.
Currently the corn fuel/petro diesel fuel blends create more pollution than what would be caused by hemp fuel/petro diesel blends.
The corn industry is the most subsidized industry in the U.S. The corn industry would lose money and funding if hemp were legalized for bio-methanol production (corporate welfare from the government provides hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for corn-based ethanol companies). Hemp ethanol is more economically feasible, is easier to produce, uses less energy to produce, causes less pollution when produced, is easier on and better for the soil, takes less land to produce, and requires less irrigation to produce than corn ethanol.
Hemp farms also absorb more greenhouse gasses than burning of the fuel releases. Hemp fuel can help governments accomplish their goal of reducing greenhouse gases.
As mentioned elsewhere in the book, hemp diesel and plant diesel fuels of any kind are not without their problems. Soil depletion issues and intensive production matters should be taken into consideration when balancing the environmental safety of any sort of fuel.
• Engine oil and mechanical lubricant. Again, environmentally safer and more economically feasible than petroleum oil in every way. It works well on bike chains. During World War II the U.S. government used hemp oil as a lubricant on machinery and airplanes.
• Erosion control blankets made from hemp rope and netting can be used to prevent soil erosion. In landscaping, an underlying, biodegradable “growth mat” fabric made purely of hemp fiber can be used as a way to hold soil in place while roots of trees, bushes, and plants grow into stabilizing root systems. Eventually the roots of the foliage take over, and the growth mat composts into the soil.
• Ethanol. As mentioned above, hemp can be used to make ethanol. Because hemp provides more biomass per acre than other crops, hemp is an excellent crop to grow for ethanol.
Ethanol is best made using low lignan, high cellulose plants, which makes cellulosic ethanol rather than the starch- or sugar-based ethanol made from corn.
Cellulosic ethanol produces greatly lower tailpipe emissions than starch ethanol, and is better for the engines. Hemp has the best lignan/cellulose ratio of all plants. Hemp is a better choice than corn, sugar beets, and other plants being used for ethanol production. This is so in relation to the amount of fuel, farming chemicals, soil degradation caused by other crops. Hemp is less intensive, uses fewer resources to grow, and is an excellent producer of fuel in relation to its absorption of greenhouse gasses and sequestering in the parts of the plant not used for fuel.
Petroleum gasoline is a toxic, cancer-causing “fossil fuel” and is distilled with the toxic, cancer-causing chemicals benzine, hexene, touline, and zylene. Replacing petroleum gasoline with cellulosic ethanol made from hemp would prevent the use of these chemicals that are deadly for all forms of life.
However, as explained earlier in the book, when certain issues surrounding ethanol are taken into consideration, it should be obvious that it is not the answer to world problems. Ethanol requires an enormous amount of water, and creates water pollution. Removing too much farm waste in the form of plant matter from the land degrades the soil. Building ethanol plants all over the world to serve the combustible engine economies requires enormous resources, including cement, steel, roads, and fuel to produce the ethanol.
In other words, walk or ride a bike instead of driving.
• Fabric. For clothing, shoes, hats, furniture, bags, bedding, towels, tenting, etc. Hemp fabric is safer than cotton, which is grown using toxic chemicals in the form of herbicides and pesticides that lead to poisoned rivers, aquifers, oceans, and lakes and to global warming. Hemp plants also provide more fiber per acre than cotton and are better for the soil than cotton.
Unlike cotton, hemp is naturally resistant to mold and mildew.
Hemp shower curtains also do not emit toxic fumes the way plastic shower curtains do. These are reasons why hemp shower curtains are becoming popular.
Some people use the term, “India hemp” as a name for plants including hemp, jute, and dogbane. However, by most definitions, India hemp only includes true hemp, and no other fiber plants.
Also, “linen” historically was made from hemp. But some people believe linen only describes fabric made from flax. But the “bast fiber” plants, including flax, hemp, kenaf, and nettles, have been used to make linen.
• Fiberboard. Made from hemp, it is stronger than fiberboard made from wood because hemp has longer fibers. It is also more resistant to bug infestation. See Plywood below.
• Fiberglass. Hemp fiber can be used in fiberglass. Hemp extracts can also be used to make the resin, replacing the toxic resins used in fiberglass materials. Other plants used to make plastics are soy and corn. When the plastics and industrial resins made from hemp are combined with hemp fiber, the product is environmentally safer in a number of areas as compared to petroleum and glass fiberglass. Producing hemp fiberglass uses less energy than petroleum-based fiberglass, and it does not require the drilling and intensive refinement used to create petroleum plastic. The greenhouse gasses sequestered in the hemp plant remain in the fiberglass, which is also biodegradable (unless it contains petroleum byproducts, including polypropylene). Hemp fiberglass is lighter and stronger than traditional fiberglass. This is one reason why car companies are pleased by it. A lighter car means better fuel mileage.
• Flooring. Various flooring materials made from hemp include ceramic-like tile, linoleum-like plastics, and compressed planks.
• Food. Hemp seed does not contain THC, the psychoactive substance of marijuana that induces pleasurable feelings. There may be very minimal amounts of THC residue on the hull of the hemp seed, but not enough to get someone high. Even consuming a cup of hemp seed will not provide a buzz. You are likely to get more drunk from a teaspoon of beer than high from a cup of hemp seeds.
The seeds of hemp can be used in cereals, trail mix, and chips. They can be ground into highly nutritious protein powder that can be used as flour, and added to smoothies, meatless burgers, and other foods. Raw hempseed oil is a high-quality dietary oil that can be used in salad dressings, frozen desserts, and other foods.
• Fuel. Hemp oil and ethanol fuels, along with other sustainable plant fuels, can help replace petroleum gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuel.
Hemp fuel burns cleaner than petroleum and doesn’t contain sulfur, so it won’t cause acid rain, or lead to the acidifying of the world’s oceans and lakes, which is leading to global warming and damage to all marine life.
See Diesel Fuel and Ethanol above.
• Furniture. From the fabric to the stuffing, wood and paint hemp can be used to create furniture that is environmentally safe. Many types of furniture manufactured today are made out of chemically treated wood, plasticized fabrics, petroleum-based finishes, and foam rubber made from petrochemicals.
• Hammocks. Being naturally resistant to mold and mildew as well as to decomposition from sunlight makes hemp an excellent fiber material for hammocks and outside furniture.
• Ink. Common nonpetroleum ink is made from soy. Hemp provides more ink-making substances per acre than soy. Soy is often grown using chemicals made from petroleum and other fossil fuels in the form of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. There is no need for these chemicals on farms, and they are not needed to grow hemp.
• Insulation. Fiber from hemp can be used for making. Hemp insulation is safer than fiberglass insulation, which can damage lungs, and may emit formaldehyde, which can cause cancers of the breathing passageways.
“Insulation made from hemp has definite advantages: its production requires relatively little energy, it’s not harmful to health, and it can be disposed of by composting or carbon-neutral incineration. In addition, it is light, has low heat conductivity and meets fire safety regulations. On top of that, it easily absorbs and releases moisture, helping to prevent damage to the building.
Hemp insulation is manufactured by several companies, including the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (Germany) which uses a biopolymer extracted from corn instead of polyester to hold the hemp fibers together, creating an insulating material made entirely of natural products that is completely biodegradable.”
– VoteHemp.com; March 2007
• Jobs. Although not a “product,” an industrial hemp industry creates jobs on a local level. From farming to processing the harvested hemp into raw material and into products, the hemp industry creates jobs every step of the way. It can bring the production of fabric, fuel, paper, food, and other products and materials into the local sector in an environmentally sustainable way unlike any other material. It makes communities more self-sufficient, and greatly reduces the dependence on materials having to be brought into a community from distant parts of the planet. Instead of depending on fuel imported from other parts of the world, a community can create its own fuel. Instead of bringing in wood, paper, fabric, paint, oil, and food products from other parts of the planet, the community growing hemp can create its own. Everyone from small farmers to small business owners can benefit from a local hemp industry. Wildlife and the environment will benefit from healthier forests and cleaner air and water. Again, I ask the question: Why is the U.S. importing hemp materials from Australia, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Thailand, and the Ukraine when the U.S. can be growing it locally? Growing it locally would reduce pollution created in transporting the materials from distant lands. It would keep the revenue in the local community. Keeping the farming of industrial hemp illegal in the U.S. is irresponsible and irrational. An active industrial hemp industry in the U.S. would greatly reduce world pollution.
• Lamp oil. Hemp is a clean-burning oil that is much safer than petro oils, and it burns brighter. Put hemp oil in your oil lamp and you will immediately notice the difference in a cleaner-burning oil that smells better and doesn’t create black smoke.
Before lamps were known as “kerosene lamps,” they were known as oil lamps. The two most common forms of oil used in the lamps were whale fat oil and hemp oil. Kerosene is a petroleum product and didn’t come into wide use until the middle of the 1800s. Eventually, the use of kerosene faded as the electric light bulb became popular.
• Linen. See: Fabric
• Lotion. Hemp-based lotions are safer than lotions made with petroleum extracts.
• Mulch. For farming and gardening. The leaves of hemp plants are naturally high in soil nutrients and they work as natural, safe fertilizer as they decompose.
• Netting. See Hammocks.
• Nutritional powders and oils. Hemp is an excellent source for nutritional oils and powders.
• Oil. When hemp is grown for seed, it provides about 1,000 pounds of seed per acre. One acre of hemp produces as much fuel from oil and ethanol as 25 barrels of petroleum oil. With a 35 percent oil content, hemp can provide a lot of oil for many of the uses listed here.
After the seeds are pressed to extract the oil, the remaining caking can be used for a variety of the other products, including as a nutritional ingredient in food, in nutritional powders, and in pet food.
• Outdoor fabric uses. Hemp fabric is less affected by UV rays than cotton, and even more so than some synthetic fiber fabrics. This makes hemp fabric ideal for tarps, tenting, sails, hammocks, and other outdoor uses.
• Packaging. Why are we cutting down trees to make disposable packaging when we can save the forests and use fast-growing hemp instead?
Disposable packaging made from hemp is recyclable, compostable, and biodegradable. Compare that to Styrofoam cups, or to plastic cups and plastic utensils that may be around for thousands of years.
Food containers made out of tree pulp are made using bleaches that result in poisoned rivers, lakes, and oceans. They are often also coated with petroleum wax, which is another poison, and this wax leaches into the food that is stored in them.
Along the same lines, why are we cutting down 100 million trees every year to print junk mail? Not that I am for junk mail, but allowing the forests to survive and using hemp to create paper for marketing materials would do several things that would support the environment rather than destroy it. It would keep the forests where they should be, absorbing carbon and air pollution while filtering rainwater and serving as homes to wildlife. Fields of hemp would absorb more pollution while emitting oxygen and reduce the use of chemicals that are used in making paper from tree pulp. The greenhouse gasses absorbed by the fields of hemp would be locked into the paper products, which could be composted, recycled, or used to make building materials, including insulation.
• Paint. Safer for both people and the environment than paint made from petroleum extracts. Paint made with hemp oil is less likely to blister under the sun.
• Paper. Hemp provides more pulp per acre than many type of trees that are used for paper. Genetically engineered trees can provide more pulp per acre, but genetic engineering is a dangerous practice that has introduced a number of problems for wildlife and the environment.
We could stop cutting down the forests for paper if we were to legalize industrial hemp farming. This would help save endangered species; protect animal environments; and improve the health of streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans. Allowing the forests to regenerate while also planting millions of acres of hemp around the world would absorb global warming gasses from the atmosphere while putting forth oxygen.
• Pet food. Pets can benefit from the excellent quality nutrients in hemp seeds.
• Phytoremediation. This is not a “product,” but is a process by which growing hemp can be used to clean soil that has been contaminated with industrial pollutants and nuclear waste. In other words, growing hemp can help remove toxins from polluted soil. The Institute of Bast Crops in the Ukraine has been involved in experiments to grow hemp in soil contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster.
• Pillows.
• Pipe. Hemp plastic piping for plumbing needs can be used instead of toxic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) piping.
Polyvinyl chloride is a known carcinogen that requires large amounts of fossil fuels and chlorine to produce. It leaches dioxin into the environment. PVC is not a good thing.
• Plastic. From the raw material to the final product, plastic made from hemp is environmentally safer than plastics made from petroleum. Hemp plastic is biodegradable. Safer plastic than petroleum plastic can also be made from such plants as corn, cotton, and sugar beets, but those crops are most often grown using toxic farming chemicals that are harmful to wildlife, to streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans, and cause global warming.
• Plywood. Again, another way we could stop cutting down the forests is to make plywood out of hemp and bamboo instead of trees.
Common plywood emits formaldehyde, which can cause cancers of the breathing passageways. Plywood is also often treated with toxic chemicals. Hemp and bamboo plywood can be made without these toxins and is less susceptible to bug infestation.
Fiberboard made from hemp is two to three times stronger than fiberboard made from wood. One of the reasons for this is that wood fiber is very short, while hemp fiber can be feet long.
• Rayon. This popular fabric can be made from hemp hurd.
• Roofing. Resins and fibers of the hemp plant are used to create long-lasting roofing materials that are biodegradable and do not contain toxic chemicals that poison the environment. Many roofing materials in use today are made out of tar and other toxic derivatives of petroleum.
• Resins. For fiberglass and other structural and industrial uses. Using hemp for these would help reduce the use and dependence on toxic fossil fuels.
• Rope. The use of hemp fiber to make rope is one of the most common worldwide uses of the plant. Hemp rope was used during the construction of the Great Pyramids.
• Rugs. Many of the most common materials used in rugs are cancer-causing and hormone-disrupting, and emit toxic gasses into homes. Additonally, traditional carpeting isn’t biodegradable and it takes up a large amount of space in landfills.
Hemp fiber is a strong material ideal for rugs, holds up under high foot traffic, and can be cleaned using common carpet cleaning machinery.
• Sails. The first triangular sails were made by Arabs. Soon after that they expanded their trade routes. It was only after hemp sails came into use that England established its trade route with the Orient. Hemp sails were used on Columbus’s ships, on the Mayflower, on the USS Constitution, and on other famous ships.
• Sealants.
• Shampoo.
• Shoe laces.
• Shower curtains.
• Soap.
• Sporting goods and clothing. Frisbees, gloves, hackie sacks, protective gear, running shoes, skateboards, snowboards, socks, surfboards, umbrellas, and yoga clothing and mats can all be made from hemp materials.
• Tea bags.
• Towels.
• Vacuum cleaner filters.
• Varnish.
• Wallpaper.
“Overall, social pressure and government mandates for lower dioxin production, lower greenhouse gas emissions, greater bio-based product procurement, and a number of other environmental regulations, seem to directly contradict the wisdom of prohibiting an evidently useful and unique crop like hemp.”
– March 2008 Reason Foundation Study on Hemp, Illegally Green: Environmental Costs of Hemp Prohibition. Policy Study 367, by Skaidra Smith-Heisters