Industry Trends
Industrial uses for hemp are just starting to emerge into the market. Building materials like hempcrete and hemp insulation are superior products to similar products currently being used.
Hemp insulation and hempcrete have much lower carbon impacts than other building materials. Many materials currently used in construction contain toxic and harmful chemicals.
Hemp fiber can replace petroleum based fibers commonly used in clothing, linens and many more common products. Hemp polymer plastics are another exciting industrial use. Hemp plastics biodegrade in 90 days.
The application segment includes animal care, textiles, automotive, furniture, food & beverages, paper, construction materials, personal care, and others. The textile industry segment has dominated the industrial hemp market and held the value around USD $1.03 Billion in 2018. The textile industry is one of the largest consumers in the industrial hemp market as it is used in manufacturing apparel, fabrics, denim, fine textiles, and others. It is also used in manufacturing several industrial textile products such as twine, rope, nets, canvas bags, tarps, carpets, and geotextiles. Increasing demand of hemp in the production of the fiber products has further increased the textiles segment market size in the global industrial hemp market.
Industrial hemp market is projected to grow from USD $4.6 billion in 2019 to USD $26.6 billion by 2025.
The automobile industry as it functions today leaves an alarmingly high carbon footprint. Per the Brussels Times- The vehicle industry’s carbon footprint is larger than that of the whole of the European Union.
The automobile industry was responsible for approximately 9% of the planet’s total carbon footprint in 2018. Sports utility vehicles (SUVs) are the worst polluters.
Making a car has as large a carbon footprint as driving it. It is never easy to calculate the exact carbon footprint of car manufacturing since it is an extremely complex process. The critical problem is that the automobile industry’s carbon footprint spreads across several other industries.
The carbon footprint of vehicle making starts from the stage of mining the ores and continues up to the transfer of the new vehicles to the showrooms from where they get sold. The carbon footprint to manufacture a standard vehicle is 10 tons.
Along with other environmental hazards like plastic pollution, the greenhouse effect is causing immeasurable damage to the natural ecological balance of planet earth. We all are at a level of danger that only a few besides environmental scientists and activists have yet learned to pay serious attention to.
Hemp can revolutionize the automobile industry, if given a chance. And it should be noted the possible contribution of hemp does not stop just with providing material for car parts.
