Hemp for Paper Saves Forests and Protects Wildlife, Water, Land, and Air
Hemp for Paper Saves Forests, and Protects Wildlife, Water, Land, and Air
“You can make every grade of paper from toilet paper to newspaper at one-fourth the cost.”
– Jack Herer, author of The Emperor Wears No Clothes; JackHerer.com
“Hemp paper is stronger and has greater folding endurance than wood pulp paper.”
– Lyster H. Dewey and Jason L. Merrill. Bulletin #404, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1916
“Hemp makes terrific paper and cutting it down is what it’s planted for in the first place. Hemp paper is stronger and more recyclable than tree-based paper. Wood pulp has a high concentration of lignin, a bonding agent that makes wood pulp hard to work with when making paper. Never fear! Dioxin is here! (Dioxin is) one of the most toxic substances known to man, but it sure does break down lignin and, unfortunately, everything else. Hemp doesn’t need dioxin (to be used during the paper-making process) because (hemp) doesn’t have as much lignin (as wood does) in its hurd (i.e., its woody core).”
– Rob Moseley, Kentucky Hemp Outfitters, KentuckyHemp.com
“The paper industry is seeking new sources of pulp with depleting timber resources. ‘Forest Product Extenders’ is the term given by the industry, for agricultural fibers used in manufacture of products, continuing the life of the forests. The combination of long and short fibers of hemp allow it to be a prime raw material for paper-making. Fine Bible paper, cigarette papers, and bank notes have for centuries been made from hemp.”
– Practical Guide to Hemp, HempLobby.org
“Because of both its chemical and physical composition, hemp can produce high pulp yields and can be pulped without use of the Kraft process (used for chemical pulping of wood and long-fiber specialty papers) which uses sulfur compounds that are environmentally toxic. Also, as with other non-wood pulp, hemp can be bleached with peroxide and through other processes that do not involve chlorine. The environmentally preferable pulping processes are those, such as the Organosolv process, where processing chemicals and waste products can be recovered and reused either within the pulping mill or as marketable byproducts like fuel or fertilizer.”
– March 2008 Reason Foundation Study on Hemp, Illegally Green: Environmental Costs of Hemp Prohibition. Policy Study 367, by Skaidra Smith-Heisters
Since hemp has become illegal, and trees have been used as the main source of materials to make paper, the forests of the world and wildlife dependent on those forests have been devastated. Cutting down millions of trees for paper year after year has resulted in the extinction of plants and animals, and the polluting of streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, and oceans from land stripped of trees. Additionally, wood pulp paper manufacturing plants use toxic chemicals that also contribute to pollution of land and water. Many paper manufacturing mills still dump their untreated pollution directly into streams, rivers, lakes, and the ocean.
Because of its low lignin content hemp takes fewer chemicals to convert into paper and cardboard. Hemp is naturally whiter than tree fiber, which means that it can be bleached using environmentally benign hydrogen peroxide. Wood pulp is bleached with chlorine bleach, which generates toxic dioxin. With fewer chemicals used to make hemp from paper the result is a cleaner and safer environment.
Additional benefits of hemp paper is that the fibers in hemp are much longer, making a stronger paper than what is made using the short fibers in wood. Hemp paper is acid-free, which means it lasts longer than paper that has been bleached.
A growing threat to the environment is the cultivation of genetically engineered trees, as well as the increased use of pesticides on many tree farms and on tree plantations.
International Paper is one company that uses pesticides on their farmed trees that are cut down for paper pulp and fiberboard. This has caused great harm to bee populations. A reduction in bee populations sounds like a very soft threat, but it is quite serious. All populations of the estimated 4,500 species of bees in North America have been on steep decline, and much of this can be blamed on chemicals used on tree and food farms. Bee pollination results in many of the foods that humans survive on as well as a large amount of the food that wildlife consume. The wild bee populations need to be protected. Chemical pesticides that kill bees should be outlawed. (To learn more about the dangers of genetic engineering of plants, access: seedsofdeception.com. To learn more about the collapse of bee populations, access: vanishingbees.com.)
“75 to 90 percent of all paper used from at least A.D. 100 to 1883 was made of cannabis/hemp. Books (including Bibles), money, and newspapers all over the world have been mainly printed on cannabis/hemp for as long as these things have existed in human history.”
– Jack Herer, author of The Emperor Wears No Clothes; JackHerer.com
“Industrial hemp production has recently been the subject of increasing study around the world. In the Pacific Northwest, regional paper and wood products companies are becoming more interested in agricultural fiber sources to meet their raw material needs. Hemp is one among many possible agricultural products that could supplement or replace fiber currently supplied by foreign and domestic wood species.
… There is little doubt that industrial hemp can be successfully cultivated in some areas of the Pacific Northwest.
… Until legislative restrictions are removed from hemp, it is unlikely that investments in improved production technology will be made or that the required industrial infrastructure will be developed.”
– Feasibility of Industrial Hemp Production in the United States Pacific Northwest; Oregon State University, Department of Crop and Soil Science; May 1998, by Daryl T. Ehrensing; EESC.ORST.Edu/AgComWebFile/News/Crops/HempFiber.html
“Tough and durable, hemp content paper can be finished to a smooth-surfaced sheet with as good as or better print qualities than virgin wood-based paper. The markets for hemp content paper are growing, including not only high-quality post-consumer waste printer paper, but also ecological product packaging, brochures, and promotional materials for progressive businesses.”
– Hemp Industries Association, TheHIA.org
“Farming 10,000 acres of hemp will provide as much paper, building materials and pulp as 41,000 acres of forest.”
– USDA Bulletin 404 issued in 1916 [!], the result of a study seeking solutions to the problem that America was using up its forests. The study concluded that hemp was the solution to saving our trees and wildlife. More modern figures using today’s technological breakthroughs in farming, and in hemp and tree production, while still impressive, and favoring hemp, are not as dramatic as those stated in 1916. However, when the environmental benefits of growing, processing, and using hemp for paper are compared to growing, processing, and using trees for paper are taken into consideration, hemp wins by a landslide. Deforesting land leads to landslides, the extinction of species, poisoned rivers and lakes, and global warming.
“Using hemp can eliminate our dependence on trees. One acre of hemp produces the same amount of paper as four acres of trees, four times a year, at 1/4th the cost of wood pulp paper and with 1/5th the pollution. Hemp only takes 90-100 days to mature for harvest, while most trees take 50 to 500 years. Hemp paper can be recycled ten times, as opposed to three times for most tree-based paper. Hemp paper production can reduce wastewater contamination normally associated in paper production. Hemp production reduces the need for acids, and lends itself to environmentally friendly bleaching instead of harsh chlorine compounds. Hemp paper does not yellow with age and is acid free. 1,500-year-old hemp paper has been found.”
– Hemp: A True Gift from God(ess), by Dr. Heather Anne Harder, SeattleHempFest.com/Facts. For the record, certain trees, especially those in genetically engineered tree forests managed by lumber and paper companies can produce more pulp for paper than hemp. The claim that one acre of hemp can produce the same amount of four acres of trees holds true under certain conditions, and only within certain temperate regions. Many regions of the U.S. could produce two crops of hemp per year, and certain limited regions can produce four crops per year – depending on for what the hemp is being grown. Hemp grown for seed requires a longer growing period, and it also needs to be planted wider apart than hemp that is being grown for fiber or pulp. The abundance of hemp is relative to temperate zone, season, and water and soil conditions.
A Hungarian named Dr. Ivan Bocsa began studying hemp in 1949 when he was hired as an assistant to Dr. Rudolf Fleischmann, founder of the GATE Agricultural Research Institute in Kompolt, Hungary. Fleischman had been studying hemp since 1920. Along with a German hemp consultant named Michael Karus, Bocsa is the co-author of the technical book, The Cultivation of Hemp: Botany, Varieties, Cultivation, and Harvesting. Using a variety of hemp that Fleischmann had developed, Bocsa bred a variety of hemp named Kompolti, which is ideal for use in paper manufacturing.
“I think we’ll see hemp paper as the biggest area of growth, followed by textiles, and then followed by insulation. But we need to have a lot of factories upgraded before this can really happen. Still, this is a very exciting time, and there are great things happening right now. We can be very hopeful.”
– Dr. Ivan Bocsa, From Hungary with Love, by Deborah Kirk, Hemp Times magazine, 1999
Hemp and other plants like kenaf, switchgrass, jute, and bamboo should be the main sources of pulp for paper and cardboard.
Other paper fiber plants include everything from banana leaf, flax, rice straw, bluegrass stubble, wheat, and typical lawn cuttings. Hemp, bamboo, and even coconut husks and palm fiber are excellent raw materials for manufacturing fiberboard, plywood, and flooring that is stronger and environmentally safer than wood. Hemp is the most environmentally safe of all plant fibers that can be used for paper, construction board, paneling board, and flooring. Bamboo is another environmentally sustainable source for paper. Any of these would be better to use for paper rather than having to cut down a forest every time J. K. Rowling finishes another book, and every time Oprah gives her stamp of approval on a new book.
“Wood-based paper manufacturing, which has replaced the use of agricultural fibers like hemp for papermaking, is the fourth most energy-intensive industry in the United States today, accounting for 5.6 percent of industrial carbon dioxide emissions in 2005. Paper manufacturing from wood pulp also typically requires the use of sulphur and chlorine, chemicals known to cause environmental harm. The high chemical and energy requirements of wood pulping result from the need to remove the lignin content (a type of plant glue) and isolate the useful cellulose present in the raw material. The balance of cellulose to lignin is more favorable in fiber crops, and hemp is a prime example.”
– March 2008 Reason Foundation Study on Hemp, Illegally Green: Environmental Costs of Hemp Prohibition. Policy Study 367, by Skaidra Smith-Heisters
We should stop cutting down the forests of the world to manufacture wood and paper products. Most of the oldest trees on the planet, from Australia to Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe, have been cut down in the last 150 years, and relatively few remain.
Please access VoteHemp.com to learn how you can support the movement to legalize industrial hemp farming in the U.S.