In the United States, passage of the US farm bill, which legalizes the cultivation of hemp on the federal level, is poised to increase efforts to develop hemp-based plastics.
Paul Benhaim, CEO of Australian CBD company Elixinol Global, spent 20 years developing hemp-based startups, but failed at his first attempt in using the material to produce plastics. “To be truly cost effective with bioplastics, it’s all about being close to production,” he tells Yahoo News. “So, with the farm bill and people growing hemp in the U.S. there will be more biomass available and we can use the waste product for whatever they are growing hemp for.”
Currently, hemp is grown to extract CBD for products such as creams, supplements, and beverages. Until now, the leftover material has been shipped to Asia because there was no sanctioned domestic use under US law. Benhaim plans to launch a hemp plastic polymers startup in January.