Hemp | 79hemp production.“My mission is to get everybody ‘Two thirds of the processing of the hemp stock is exactly the same whether you are making textiles, plastics, biofuel, paper, to stop using trees for paper and kitty litter, or horse bedding. You still have to process the plant somewhere. The processing and the supply chain for the hemp switch over to hemp”stock is not specifc for any one industry,’ says Halverson. Because of that, the limited supply has a very large demand for a variety actually increased paper production, increased the need for of industries. pulp, and increased the desire for sustainable alternatives,’ says Halverson has a bold mission for her company: ‘My mission is Halverson. ‘A lot of people have this idea that with the dawn of to get everybody to stop using trees for paper and switch over to the electronic age, paper production and paper use was going to go hemp. If I am truly going to do that, I have to have hemp paper do down the more that we turned to electronics. What Covid showed everything tree paper can do. It has to fold the same, perforate the us is that that is not true. The more that people buy products same, cut the same, glue the same, ship the same, hold up the same online, the more we have to ship those products, and we ship those – it has to do everything that regular tree paper can do.’ products in paper boxes.’She sees this mission as more timely than ever. ‘Covid has For Halverson, hemp can be a complete solution. ‘The box that you put the product in, the box that you ship it in, the box that you put it on display in the store in, the label that it has around it, the tissue paper inside it, the peanuts in the box, all of that can be 100 percent hemp. There is no reason for paper that is tree paper not to be 100 percent hemp.’This is one of the key distinctions that separates Tiny e Paper from other hemp paper companies. ‘Most other companies are only 25 percent hemp and 75 percent post-consumer recycled content – that means recycled trees. That doesn’t solve the problem,’ says Halverson. Using zero trees is Tiny e Paper’s claim to fame, and is why Halverson doesn’t consider other hemp paper-producing companies to be her competition. For Halverson, being truly tree-free is of the upmost importance. VPF has developed a self-adhesive labelstock made entirely from hemp fber‘If we don’t fgure out alternative resources for all the different products we make out of wood, in 300 years we will be out of trees. VPF launches labelstock made entirely from When I say that my mission is to save the planet one plant at a hemp fiberstime, that might sound like hyperbole but the frst plant I’m talking German adhesive materials specialist VPF has developed, in about is trees and it is not hyperbolic to say we have to fgure cooperation with Gmund Papier, a self-adhesive labelstock something out.’made entirely from hemp fber as an alternative to While saving trees is a noble goal, hemp is certainly no second conventional papers made of wood.fddle to tree-based materials. ‘There are some natural properties The 120gsm hemp paper consists of pure European hemp that hemp has on its own that when I make paper out of the hemp fber, offers a soft feel, excellent printability, and improved stock, those natural properties are in the paper as well. One of wastepaper cycle.those is that its naturally antibacterial, so anything I make out of Hemp is one of the oldest cultivated plants used early for hemp paper makes that paper antibacterial,’ explains Halverson. paper production. The Gutenberg Bible from 1455 was made ‘Additionally, hemp is UV resistant, so it won’t change color as light of hemp paper, and until about 1880, 75 to 90 percent of the hits it and is also naturally water resistant.’ world’s paper demand was covered by hemp fbers. Unlike While there are many known benefts of hemp, Halverson admits trees, hemp grows quickly, can be easily cultivated, and is more research needs to be done. ‘We need repeatable processes fully utilized.and we need the supply chain to exist and product to get into the A hemp feld has four to fve times the yield of a forest of marketplace in order to get more data and research about end of the same size. Hemp grows to a height of up to four meters lifecycle analysis.’ within a year and can be harvested three times a year, Previous government bans and the limited supply chain producing more biomass than any other domestic crop. availability have crippled this research, but it is vital to quantify Since the fber is naturally light in color, a small amount of hemp’s benefts. ‘We need to be able to quantify and qualify other bleaching agent is needed for subsequent paper production. data points such as how much hemp do I need to use to save 100 Hemp is characterized by fbers that are fve times as long as trees for example. How can I quantify to customers what it means those of paper fbers, which means high tensile, tear and wet when you make that switch over? Those are the type of metrics strength with accompanying long durability; at the same time, and data points we don’t have yet.’ the long fbers mean hemp improves the waste paper cycle Even without those studies, Tiny e Paper has pushed ahead with and can be recycled often.production. Halverson is frst targeting the cannabis industry with After lengthy trials and aging tests, VPF now coats the her packaging options. ‘If you are selling a CBD tincture and I come Gmund Hemp 100 percent paper (VPF 10555) with a strong to you and say “I can make your box from the same plant that adhesive UV acrylate, HM716UV with 25g application weight. you are making your product out of, look at what kind of value Because of the strong fnal adhesion, the material can also be proposition that gives you as a brand” that’s a pretty powerful reliably bonded to almost all more diffcult substrates despite statement. If you are already supporting this plant, then it just the relatively high grammage of 120gsm.makes total sense.’To further optimize the carbon footprint, VPF exclusively uses a 70g recycled liner (NSA700-476) for the self-adhesive fnish of the hemp paper, which consists of 70 percent Learn more about hemp at the Global Hemp Association recycled content. globalhempassociation.orgJan - Mar 2022