A Global Industry with Major Sustainability Implications
Paper made from hemp has been produced for millennia, and was widely used in many countries. Starting in the 1800s, however, rediscovered papermaking techniques that employed ground-down tree fibers, combined with a bleaching and softening process for wood pulp, led to the birth of the modern wood paper industry.
Since that time, wood pulp and paper manufacturing has evolved into one of the world’s largest industrial sectors, with a global market value of nearly $350 billion in 2020, according to the research firm Statista.
A Shift Away from Wood Pulp
Hemp industry stakeholders and advocates, meanwhile, say hemp paper is a renewable resource with a much smaller environmental impact than its wood counterpart.
Western States Hemp, which describes itself as Nevada’s largest hemp grower, notes on its website that an acre of hemp grows to full maturity in three to four months, and can produce as much paper as four acres of trees, while trees can take years, if not decades, before they can be harvested for paper.
Relearning Hemp Paper Manufacturing Technologies
As in other hemp product manufacturing verticals, previously-developed techniques and technologies faded away when hemp was outlawed in the U.S. nearly a century ago. Now, stakeholders in the hemp paper industry are having to relearn a lot of the processes needed to create the best hemp paper products possible.
“We never got the recipes from yesteryear, and so we‘ve been doing trial and error,” said Ed Lehrburger. He told Hemp Benchmarks his firm has its own decortication facility and is developing new processes to use hemp hurd, the woody inner section of the hemp stalk. While hemp hurd makes up about 70% of the usable fibers found in industrial hemp, it has been considered best used for construction, animal bedding, and plastic products. In contrast, the plant’s outer bast fibers have been recognized for their uses in textiles and other industries.
