Hemp's Potential for More Sustainable Manufacturing

Following the enactment of the 2018 Farm Bill, the demand for hemp skyrocketed, with many eager entrepreneurs jumping in with big dreams and high expectations for the industry. Unfortunately, due to the flooded market, the demand for hemp for CBD product manufacturing has decreased in the past few years.

However, while the demand for hemp for CBD product manufacturing has decreased, demand for hemp for material manufacturing is poised to raise dramatically amidst new carbon-emission caps and single-use plastic bans that make natural, sustainable materials the preferred choice over traditional materials made from petrochemicals. Additionally, the increased pressure to move from oil and gas to renewable resources gives hemp a substantial advantage.

Hemp's ability to capture carbon during the growing cycle, its ability to use less water than cotton, and its ability to clean the soil and surrounding environment in which it's grown are key factors that make hemp the best choice for manufacturing anything from clothes to building materials to car parts.

Hemp is still one of the more expensive options compared to traditional materials, but crackdowns on plastic use in countries like India, Canada, Germany, and South Africa are making sustainable alternatives more economical.

"Hemp could play a role in many categories: plastics, textiles, papers, building materials, protein for humans and animals, and concrete of all forms. Some of the more innovative applications include hempcrete, where hemp fibers are infused in the mortar, and a Porsche car with some components made of hemp. Some see hemp as a viable alternative to almost anything made from petrochemicals, due to the properties of its cellulose fibers."

The US has quite a bit of catching up to do regarding the infrastructure for industrial hemp processing, as hemp plants for material require different agricultural processes than other forms of cannabis, and the supply chain will have to be created from scratch. "Processing the plant's tough fibers, called decortication, is an arduous practice that takes heavy machinery and has created something of a bottleneck."

To help address this bottleneck issue, Geoff Whaling, co-founder of Collective Growth Corp, has invested $500 million in an "impact fund" to help "develop US infrastructure to process hemp and improve the supply chain, focusing on hemp for food and fiber."

"'We're seeing more countries advancing and mandating use of sustainable fibers, more auto companies adopting natural fiber solutions,' Whaling said. 'It really is an industrial hemp revolution.'"

Sources:

1. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-12-27/marijuana-s-tough-year-could-pave-the-way-for-a-hemp-boom-in-2022