- Joined
- Oct 31, 2024
- Messages
- 328
Plastic. What would we do without plastic? It's everywhere and so useful.
However, we are all aware of plastic can last for 1000s of years without degrading. It's one of it's selling points I suppose but it's not good for our planet. So, instead of trying to reduce the amount of plastic we use, why don't we change the way we make plastic?
Hemp should replace petrochemical plastics because it solves three problems at once: climate, pollution, and supply security.
Hemp plastics are made from a renewable crop, grown in about 90–120 days, instead of fossil fuels formed over millions of years. They lock carbon into the material, while petroplastics release carbon every step of their lifecycle. The result is a dramatically lower carbon footprint.
Unlike oil-based plastics, hemp plastics can be biodegradable or fully recyclable, don’t shed persistent microplastics at the same scale, and don’t poison soil or water at end of life. Petroplastics, by contrast, accumulate indefinitely.
Hemp also strengthens local, circular economies: farmers grow it, manufacturers process it, and waste becomes feedstock again. Oil plastics rely on geopolitically fragile, extractive supply chains.
Finally, hemp improves soil while it grows, needs far fewer chemicals, and delivers multiple valuable outputs (fibre, hurd, oil). Petrochemicals do none of that.
So you have to ask the question. Why don't we change the way we make plastic?
However, we are all aware of plastic can last for 1000s of years without degrading. It's one of it's selling points I suppose but it's not good for our planet. So, instead of trying to reduce the amount of plastic we use, why don't we change the way we make plastic?
Hemp should replace petrochemical plastics because it solves three problems at once: climate, pollution, and supply security.
Hemp plastics are made from a renewable crop, grown in about 90–120 days, instead of fossil fuels formed over millions of years. They lock carbon into the material, while petroplastics release carbon every step of their lifecycle. The result is a dramatically lower carbon footprint.
Unlike oil-based plastics, hemp plastics can be biodegradable or fully recyclable, don’t shed persistent microplastics at the same scale, and don’t poison soil or water at end of life. Petroplastics, by contrast, accumulate indefinitely.
Hemp also strengthens local, circular economies: farmers grow it, manufacturers process it, and waste becomes feedstock again. Oil plastics rely on geopolitically fragile, extractive supply chains.
Finally, hemp improves soil while it grows, needs far fewer chemicals, and delivers multiple valuable outputs (fibre, hurd, oil). Petrochemicals do none of that.
So you have to ask the question. Why don't we change the way we make plastic?
