Hemp plastic: An alternative that can save the Earth?
This is not another article about the harmful effects of plastic and how it is influencing our daily habitat, Biodiversity and health. Cause honestly, I have been hearing this since my 6th grade. Not much has changed in that area of environment and ecology stuff since that time.
There may have some treaty or things, but there aren’t any drastic change right?
Greta Thunberg and her activities, famous YouTubers contributing for growing billions of trees, the Apple company promising to be carbon neutral in 10 years, these are some things I remember immediately about humanity’s contribution. And of course, staying inside the home during the pandemic. Lol.
So the question is, We are claiming to be living in the technological era, but why don’t we have effective and efficient alternatives for plastics or non-degradable things?
Well, there is, but we are not as advanced as we see in movies. Let’s see one of our options.
We have Hemp. Ever heard of it? Well, I am sure that you know Marijuana. You Don’t have to be a Perfect baby — I know you know what Marijuana is. But let's use the term Hemp. It has other “potential” uses varying from clothing to paper. Let's talk about Hemp plastic.
Hemp plastic is a bioplastic made out of industrial hemp. Bioplastics are made out of natural materials such as hemp. Hemp plastic is biodegradable and 100% recyclable.
Time for some 8th-grade biology.
The key component of plastic is cellulose. Without Cellulose, the plastic we know won’t be possible to make. Surprisingly, Hemp fibre is also a rich source of cellulose. Thus, hemp is a very good source for creating plastic.
When I read the sentence above, I had a question to myself.So, Anything with cellulose can be used to make plastic? No.I donno. If that was possible, scientists would have tried. Imagine plastic made out of dead human body.
Hemp plastic is made from a polymer which is biodegradable unlike the polymer in plastic. This also means that when hemp plastic is sent to a landfill to naturally degrade over time, it doesn’t require the help of other toxic materials to break down.
So technically Hemp plastic is a badass superhero-like IronMan when compared to The traditional plastic, Thanos.
Yea, I still haven’t gotten over the fact that Ironman is dead.How sad is that?Inevitable , Tho Sad.(Avengers reference)
But we can’t just replace every plastic product with hemp plastic. Imagine how much acres of land we need for hemp farms to produce hemp plastics. I mean, don’t we need land for growing essential stuff?
Another thing is that, look around you, a packet of medicine to the package that can carry blood for transfusion that can save lives is made out of different forms of plastic. Without proper and high-grade testing, not even regular plastics are used. So, how do you think our biodegradable “hemp” would perform in such conditions?
And to test that for every single drug or application would be super expensive and maybe pointless to even try. Yes, there are other bioplastics too, but no cries as loud as for hemp to replace regular plastic with.
Another question you might be having is “can I get high if I burn a hemp plastic product?” I dunno dear.
So what’s the point of this article? Banning plastic or replacing plastic with hemp is not a wise idea, to begin with. But the thing we can do is to learn how to manage non-degradable plastic wastes.
Cause honestly, Is the environment polluted due to the plastic production or due to the poor plastic management mentality? Humans dump the wastes in oceans and wherever they please in the first place. Hence, educating people to responsibly sort their waste, and introducing schemes to ensure no plastics are wasted post-consumption are some of the things that should be done.
What could possibly go wrong if we just dumped all of our plastics and E-wastes to the space? Well that’s for another time.
I intentionally didn’t show you any numbers on pollution due to plastic. Cause no one cares unless something has their name on it. But Remember, Elon Musk still haven’t made a habitat on Mars. Until then, we are stuck here on Earth, unless Aliens Abducts you for their experiments. So, treat mother Earth responsibly.
Next time when you throw off a piece of candy wrapper to the ground, Remember it is not a Hemp plastic to degrade in 6 months. And a warning, Not the there won't be a planet left to live kind of warning. Cause We all are gonna die one way or other. You have a choice to do the right thing before you die. But how do you know when ? you would never know, do the right things now!
Stay safe and get high with the little things in life. WINK WINK ;)
-Rahul☘️
