Natural Environment Blog

Hemp is an extremely versatile plant with enormous environmental benefits. It can be used in a wide variety of applications.

It’s no wonder that companies such as Ford, BMW, Mercedes, The Body Shop, Calvin Klein, and many more are turning to hemp so that they can create more eco-friendly products.

Here are 60 examples of how hemp is being used around the world:

Paper

• Printing paper
• Specialty paper
• Cigarette filter paper
• Coffee filter paper
• Newsprint
• Cardboard
• Packaging

Foods

• Cooking oils
• Salad dressing/oils
• BIO-EFA food oil
• Margarine
• Vitamins/Food supplements
• Granola
• Bird seed
• Flour (protein enriched, gluten-free)

Body Care

• Soap
• Shampoo
• Bath/shower gels
• Hand cream
• Cosmetics
• Moisturizing lotions
• Balms

Consumer Textiles

• Apparel
• Bags
• Shoes
• Socks
• Denim
• Diapers / Nappies
• Fabrics

Industrial Textiles

• Canvas
• Rope
• Twine
• Nets
• Tarpolans
• Carpet
• Geotextiles
• Brake/clutch linings
• Caulking (i.e. sealing the seams in boats or ships to make them watertight)
• Agro-fiber composites

Industrial/Technical Products

• Oil paints
• Varnishes
• Printing ink
• Fuel
• Solvents
• Lubricants
• Putty
• Coatings
• Molding
• Chemical Absorbent
• Mulch
• Pultrusion
• Biocomposite
• Animal bedding
• Ethanol/biofuel
• Erosion control

Building Materials

• Fiber board
• Insulation
• Fiberglass subsitute
• Hempcrete
• Stucco and mortar

This list is not exhaustive - I’ve heard that there are over 25,000 known uses for hemp. Feel free to name some more!

Hemp is renown for its extreme versatility and eco-friendliness. Given the rising interest in hemp, particularly as an eco-friendly alternative to so many other ingredients, I thought I’d gather together a bit of hemp trivia.

Here are some interesting facts about hemp:

• Hemp is the strongest natural fiber in the world
• The earliest known woven fabric was made of hemp over 10,000 years ago (possibly even 11,000 or 12,000 years ago)
• The original denim jeans by Levi Strauss were made out of hemp, due to its durability.
• Hemp was used to help clean up the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site (due to its ability to suck radioactive toxins out of the ground).
• The word “canvas” is derived from the word “cannabis”. This is because hemp was originally used to make canvas.
• Car manufacturers such as Ford, GM, Chrysler, Saturn, BMW, and Mercedes are using hemp composite in various parts of their vehicles
• Companies such as Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani and The Body Shop are all starting to use hemp in their products

And, isn’t it so ironic that hemp cultivation is now illegal in the U.S. given it’s permanently etched into the history of the U.S.A…..

• The first American flag was made from hemp.
• Both the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were drafted on hemp, and then copied onto parchment.
• U.S. presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp.
• During the second world war, the U.S. government actually subsidized hemp.
• During the Colonial Era and Early Republic, American farmers were legally bound to grow hemp.
• Thomas Jefferson once wrote “Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country“
• U.S. president George Washington once wrote, “Make the most of the Indian Hemp Seed and sow it everywhere!“