Hemp and the Environment
Biodegradable and Low Impact
Forestry Issues:
* Paper and paper products are currently made primarily of wood (93%), causing wholesale slaughter of forests worldwide. In 1988 alone, 226 million tons of wood were pulped for paper. Not only is pulp wood forestry devastating to tourism, wildlife habitat, and natural ecosystems, but it also creates mono-forests of pine -- susceptible to epidemics of pests such as the gypsy moth -- where healthy hardwood and mixed vegetation forests once thrived. U. S. Department of Agriculture studies show that hemp crops would yield more than four times as much pulp per acre as timber.
* Hemp can substitute for other timber uses besides paper, such as fabricated construction materials. Since 1935, technology has been available to produce particle board from hemp stalk chips and natural glues, heated for tensile strength. Improvements on this method have led to products such as Envirocor® paneling and boards, strong enough to be used for primary load-bearing at only 40% the weight of wood. These products are immune to termites and produce no toxic fumes.
* French construction entrepreneurs have rediscovered hemp cement, which they call "Isochanvre." Used as a finished surface, both interior and exterior, and impervious to rodents and insects, Isochanvre provides thermal and sonic insulation, is fire retardent, weighs one-seventh of concrete, and costs about the same as traditional materials.
Water and Soil Quality Issues:
* Hemp crops are a low-impact, sustainable resource. Few if any pesticides or fertilizers are needed. Hemp improves soil because its roots dig deep into hard pan and subsoil to bring up trace nutrients and prevent erosion. Hemp will grow even on marginal lands, and its natural habit of shedding leaves throughout the growing season reduces soil moisture evaporation and provides a layer of rich organic matter.
* Processing hemp for paper uses significantly fewer chemicals and acids than does wood pulp. Since it requires less bleach, hemp also reduces dioxin pollution.
* German firms have introduced a 100% hemp oil-based laundry detergent with environmentally-friendly production and high biodegradability. It can be made into an industrial cleaner that removes oil and tar from textiles.
* Highly contaminated soils have been targeted by a new technology called phytoremediation, wherein plants are grown in contaminated places to break down or degrade organic pollutants and stabilize metal contaminants by acting as filters or traps. Phytoremediation can be used to remove radioactive elements from soil and water, as well as to clean up metals, pesticides, solvents, explosives, crude oil, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and toxins leaching from landfills. A Russian research scientist working with phytoremediation field tests recently stated: "Hemp is proving to be one of the best phyto-remediative plants we have been able to find."
Solid Waste Issues:
The following consumer products would be 100% recyclable and biodegradable if manufactured from hemp fibers:
* Canvas for furniture coverings, bags, backpacks, hats, sails, and more. Very long lasting, resistant to wear, tear, salt, and sunlight.
*Fabric for clothing, woven heavy as burlap or thin as silk. Stronger, more insulative, more absorbant, and more durable than cotton. Holds shape like polyester.
*Carpeting, either mixed with wool or 100% hemp. Serving either as a face fiber and/or backing, hemp does not shed fuzz, is naturally resistant to fire, mold, mildew, and decomposition, and does not "off gas."
*Automobile parts, such as headliners, rear window shelving, door panels, matting under carpets, air bag parts, and trunk liners. Parts are lightweight and fire resistant
*Fiberglass replacement (for "chopped" figerglass, interior uses). Safer and more desirable alternative, lightweight, holds a better surface finish.
Air Quality Issues:
* Hemp oil and hemp biomass could serve as a domestic source of renewable, low-pollution fuel. Seed oil can be combined with 15% methanol to create a substitute for diesel fuel which burns 70% cleaner than petroleum diesel.
* Hemp cellulose can be polymerized to make any type of plastic product. Manufacturing processes using hemp would produce significantly less pollutants than processes involving petrochemicals.
* Seed oil can produce an industrial cleaner that removes oil and tar from textiles, and makes a better printing ink than soybeans. Paints and varnishes made with hemp oil produce no volatile organic compounds.
"Why use the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the fields?"
Henry Ford, on the use of hemp celluloid in automobile production.
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