The current demand for eco-solutions to modern waste issues has generated a swell of green business opportunities.<\/p>\n
Companies like The Hemp Plastic Company (THCP) in Boulder, offer alternative bio-plastics to replace conventional petroleum plastics. Hemp plastics use natural fibrous plant-material, instead of crude oil materials and are marketed as a greener option. THPC claims it could help \u201cresolve the plastic issue for good\u201d on its website.<\/p>\n
\u201c[THPC] has reduced plastic pollution down to a design decision,\u201d says Kevin Tubbs, the company\u2019s cofounder. \u201cHemp plastic materials are versatile, renewable, sustainable, they may also be biodegradable and in some cases even compostable.\u201d<\/p>\n
But some entrepreneurs and sustainability businesses remain skeptical when it comes to hemp bio-plastic. Is it as eco-friendly as producers would have consumers believe? Or is it sometimes just green-washed marketing?<\/p>\n
As two sustainably focused entrepreneurs from Colorado\u2019s cannabis industry point out, hemp bio-plastic can be neither commercially composted in the U.S. nor can it be recycled currently.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of misrepresentation,\u201d says Cody Zeiring, one of the cofounders of PAQ Case, a sustainably sourced, reusable cannabis pre-roll case company. \u201cWhen you think of it in sustainability terms, hemp plastic is actually a lot worse for the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
PAQ cases are made from 100% recycled polypropylene plastic. The company has started using reclaimed ocean plastics, and plans to switch over entirely this year. PAQ\u2019s cases are reusable and recyclable \u2014 but they were almost neither. They considered using hemp bio-plastic for its cases, but it became clear it was not quite the solution it\u2019s often sold as.<\/p>\n
To start, most hemp plastic on the market only partially consists of hemp biomaterial \u2014 as little as 5% and usually no more than 30%. The rest is almost always a polypropylene \u201cplasticizer\u201d (aka regular old petroleum plastic), which, Zeiring says, is needed for rigidity. Hemp is biodegradable; hemp plastic with polypropylene is not.<\/p>\n
Notably, of the four hemp plastic options listed on THPC\u2019s website, only one is \u201cfully compostable bioplastic.\u201d The other three all contain plasticizers, like ethylene, propylene and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene making them non-compostable. \u201cWe specialize in 25% fiber formulations,\u201d Tubbs says, meaning that the main product is 75% polypropylene. When asked if THPC\u2019s hemp plastics are biodegradable, Tubbs responds, \u201cSome formulations may be biodegradable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sana Packaging, a sustainable cannabis packaging company, also produces 100% hemp and bio-based plastic materials, but the company steers clear of marketing its products as biodegradable because there\u2019s no domestic facilities that can compost it, according to Sana cofounder James Eichner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were selling our same hemp plastic products in a country like Denmark or Sweden, it would absolutely be compostable,\u201d Eichner says, \u201cbecause their industrial composting infrastructure is light years ahead of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why Sana intentionally uses the term \u201cplant-based\u201d instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat inevitably gets our customers to ask about biodegrade-ability or compost-ability. And that becomes an opportunity for us to educate them on the larger challenges we\u2019re facing with our broken waste management system,\u201d Eichner says.<\/p>\n
Domestic compostability is only part of the problem hemp bio-plastics present, though. According to both Zeiring and Eichner, hemp bio-plastic products also cannot be recycled for the simple reason that they contain both hemp and petroleum-based plastic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you mix a biomaterial with a petroleum-based material to create a plastic, there\u2019s nothing you can do with that material at the end of its useful life other than send it to landfill,\u201d Eichner says. \u201cYou\u2019re just creating an unsolvable problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why both companies are moving toward reclaimed ocean plastic products. As Eichner puts it, \u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no reason to be using virgin resins when there\u2019s so much out there in the environment that needs to be cleaned up.\u201d<\/p>\n
While hemp-based bio-plastics represent an alternative to traditional plastics, the U.S. waste system must adapt to make it truly sustainable. Eichner likens it to the recycling movement of the 1970s \u2014 companies started to produce more recyclable materials, which led to a demand for more and better recycling facilities.<\/p>\n
Tubbs with THPC notes that, \u201cHemp plastic is indeed a breakthrough,\u201d but it is part of a far bigger solution, he says. \u201cOne that encompasses not just materials and process, but also public mindset and habit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eichner and Zeiring seem to agree.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to normalize circular and sustainable packaging,\u201d Eichner says. \u201cBut that really includes everyone doing it, not just us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The current demand for eco-solutions to modern waste issues has generated a swell of green business opportunities. Companies like The Hemp Plastic Company (THCP) in Boulder, offer alternative bio-plastics to replace conventional petroleum plastics. Hemp plastics use natural fibrous plant-material, instead of crude oil materials and are marketed as a greener option. THPC claims it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[11270,5847,12239,7105],"supplier":[16900,14011,16901],"class_list":["post-73390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biodegradability","tag-bioplastics","tag-compostability","tag-packaging","supplier-paq-case","supplier-sana-packaging","supplier-the-hemp-plastic-company-thcp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73390"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=73390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}