Table of Contents

• Why We Need Alternatives To Fossil Fuel-Based Plastic
• Hemp Cellulose Fibers A Good Source For Plastic
• The Pros & Limitations of Bioplastic
• The Biggest Barrier To Hemp Plastic
• Where to Buy Hemp Plastic

You may have heard that agricultural hemp, the non-mind-altering cousin of cannabis (commonly known as marijuana), has dozens of potential uses from clothing to paper.

Since virtually all climate scientists agree that we must replace our dependence on fossil fuels, and given that hemp can even make the soil cleaner, it’s surprising that this miracle crop isn’t in wider use.

When we looked into the topic, we found that hemp is already appearing in some commonplace objects, including cars, and could soon find its way into more. But there are also remaining barriers that keep hemp plastics more expensive and less versatile, for now.

Keep reading to learn more about the future of hemp plastic, or scroll to the bottom to find companies making hemp plastic today.

Alternatives Needed As Plastic Pollutes Water & Land

Researchers found 38 million pieces of plastic waste on one uninhabited island in the South Pacific. That’s just one island.

Not only are the harmful effects of global warming increasingly clear, conventional plastics linger in the environment and can even enter the food chain to detrimental effect on human and animal health.

In one especially shocking recent example, researchers from the University of Tasmania and the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds found 38 million pieces of plastic waste on Henderson Island, an uninhabited coral island in the South Pacific.

Jennifer Lavers, a marine scientist from the University of Tasmania, told The Guardian that evidence of human activity litters the beaches of some of the most far-flung islands in the world, regardless of the year, location, or area of the ocean.Topic

As much as 1.9 million of these tiny particles per square mile, according to a 2014 report from National Geographic, compose the infamous “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.””

Hemp Cellulose Fibers A Good Source For Many Plastics

Some of the earliest plastics were made from cellulose fibers obtained from organic, non-petroleum-based sources.

Seshata, a writer at Sensi Seeds in 2014, reported that hemp cellulose, which contains around 65-70% cellulose, can extract and use to make cellophane, rayon, celluloid, and a range of related plastics. Hemp is a good source of cellulose with particular promise due to its relative sustainability and low environmental impact when compared to wood (which contains around 40%), flax (which contains 65-75%), and cotton (which contains up to 90%).

While 100% hemp-based plastic is still a rarity, some “composite bioplastics” — plastics made from a combination of hemp and other plant sources — are already in use. Thanks to their high strength and rigidity, these plastics are currently used in the construction of cars, boats, and even musical instruments.

Bioplastic Is Promising, But Can’t Solve All Our Pollution Problems

Many plastic products are made from polymer resins, including polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, found in everyday products like plastic bottles. While advocates hope to someday see 100% hemp-based plastic bottles on supermarket shelves, the technology just isn’t ready for prime time.

Coca-Cola and other companies have experimented with 100% plant-based bottles, but they currently produce commercially available products using no more than 30% plant-based materials, while using traditional fossil fuel sources for the remaining portion.

The good news is that many corporations are investing heavily in researching replacements to traditional PET. It’s likely the first company to produce a viable commercial product could stand to earn millions.

Unfortunately, even plastic that’s deliberately designed to be biodegradable can still be a source of pollution. Almost nothing biodegrades in a landfill, and hemp microplastics could still cause problems when introduced to the oceans. Biodegradable plastics need to be sent to commercial composting facilities for efficient disposal, and these facilities aren’t available to everyone. In addition to creating better alternatives to plastic, we’ll still need to create more responsible attitudes toward disposable products.

Cost And The War On Drugs Are Biggest Barrier To Hemp Plastic

While fossil fuel costs are kept low with subsidies, hemp products for the most part remain costly luxury items. The U.S. legalized hemp in 2018, after a few years of research into hemp growing. However, decades of drug prohibition mean we’re still lacking much of the infrastructure needed to grow and process hemp into plastic.

Though hemp requires fewer pesticides and has a smaller environmental footprint than many other crops, growing and harvesting it remains labor intensive. Another drawback is that hemp requires “significant fertiliser in some soils, and also has relatively high water requirements,” as noted by Seshata.

However, hemp prices will undoubtedly come down, and technology improve as hemp growing spreads from coast to coast.

Currently, farmers in the United States are growing hemp mostly for CBD, but they are starting to experiment with other varieties that are easier to harvest for their fiber content.

Will we someday use hemp LEGOs? (It’s probably just hype)

One of the most provocative examples of hemp’s potential plastic future could come from LEGOs, the ubiquitous building block toy. which is promising to phase out fossil-fuel based resin by 2030.

“Hemp might just be the cost effective, environmentally sustainable alternative material that LEGO is looking for,” speculated Emily Gray Brosious in a February 2016 investigation from the Sun Times. However, there’s no proof that LEGO is currently seriously considering hemp.

Whether or not we’re ever able to build a spaceship from hemp bricks, the full promise of hemp plastic remains tantalizingly close, but just out of reach.

Where to buy hemp plastic?

We recommend the following brands:

• Green Spring Technologies

Green Spring Technologies creates hemp plastics used in several projects, including hemp plastic pens that several politicians have used to sign hemp legalization bills.

• SANA Packaging

SANA Packaging focuses on creating sustainable packaging for the legal cannabis and hemp industries. They’ve created “doob tubes” and other containers made from both hemp and reclaimed ocean plastic.

• PF DesignLab

PF DesignLab are cutting edge researchers creating plastic and other composite materials from hemp and other plants. Their 3D-printed hemp bicycle frame, an experimental creation showcased at the NoCo Hemp Expo in 2019, amazed us.

• ExHemplary Life (Hemp pastic drinking straws)

Plastic straws made from hemp and two other plant-based materials. These hemp drinking straws feel identical to regular straws, but they start to biodegrade in 120 days. A great example of a hemp solution to an everyday need. These straws are safer than many other replacements to common straws.

The post Hemp Makes Great Plastic, So Why Isn’t Hemp Plastic Everywhere? appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.

In episode 63 of the Ministry of Hemp podcast, our host Matt Baum talks about biodegradable hemp plastic with Carolyn Virostek, a distributor for Exhemplarylife.com.

Carolyn talks about the benefits of biodegradable hemp plastic vs other plastics. Some plastics that creators claim are more environmentally friendly actually break down into microplastics. The conversation covers single-use plastics like the hemp straws and how hemp and other plants like flax can be used for much more than making smoothies. Matt also mentions this Stanford University report on plastic straws at the beginning of the episode.

About Exhemplary Life

Exhemplary Life was created out of a desire to advocate for hemp and products made from this indigenous plant. The hemp flowers, seeds, and stalks can make many products such as clothing, shoes, accessories made with Hemp fibers for more natural and eco-friendly products. The oils of the plant can be used for food and extracts as a huge health benefit of our bodies Endocannabinoid System.

Part of the advocacy is in educating people about the needs and health benefits of hemp products as well as its eco-friendly sustainability. While educating people about the benefits of hemp people would ask us where they could get quality hemp products. Their plan is to provide more products made from hemp as the industry develops new items. Since the U.S. has finally made hemp legal to grow and cultivate we will see more and more hemp goods being made available. At first, they’ve focused on providing high-quality clothing, salves, lotions, extracts, oils and foods with more products added over time.

You’ve got hemp questions? We’ve got hemp answers!

Send us your hemp questions and you might hear them answered on one of our Hemp Q&A episodes. Send your written questions to us on Twitter, Facebook, matt@ministryofhemp.com, or call us and leave a message at 402-819-6417. Keep in mind, this phone number is for hemp questions only and any other inquiries for the Ministry of Hemp should be sent to info@ministryofhemp.com

Subscribe to our show!

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Become a Ministry of Hemp Insider and help spread the good word!

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You’ll be the first to hear about everything going on with our special newsletter plus exclusive Patron content including blogs, podcast extras, and more. Visit the Ministry of Hemp on Patreon and become an Insider now!

Hemp Straws And The Sustainability Of Hemp: Complete episode transcript

Below you’ll find the complete transcript of episode 63 of the Ministry of Hemp podcast, “Hemp Straws And The Sustainability Of Hemp”:

Matt Baum:
I’m Matt Baum, and this is the Ministry of Hemp podcast, brought to you by ministryofhemp.com, America’s leading advocate for hemp and hemp education. Welcome back to the Ministry of Hemp podcast. And I know we’ve been talking about hemp plastic a lot on the show, but there’s been a lot coming out about hemp plastic, and bio-plastics, that’s really exciting, today on the show we’re going to talk about some new completely biodegradable hemp plastics that are out there that hopefully are going to take the place of a lot of single use plastics on the market right now. But before we get to that, let’s talk about straws for a second.

Matt Baum:
Did you know that almost 500 million straws are used a day in the United States, and of those 500 million I’m going to say close to a 100% only get used once and then thrown away. Now this plastic finds its way into the ocean, into our landfills all over the place. And it’s not good for you. It’s not good for animals. It’s not good for the planet. It’s not good for anyone.

Matt Baum:
And while 500 million straws can sound like a crazy, huge number. And it is, that makes up for less than 1% of plastic pollution, which is sheer insanity. This information is coming from an article from stanford.edu, and I’ll have a link to it in the show notes, but it blows my mind. Now the good news is, there are States like Washington that have banned plastic straws. McDonald’s is moving away from plastic straws, Starbucks also did the same thing this year, and look, I don’t think paper straws are the answer either because they’re awful.

Matt Baum:
They just melt, and cutting down trees to make paper straws is not an answer. Now, there are people out there making a completely biodegradable hemp plastic. And today we start off talking about straws. My conversation today is with, Carolyn Virostek. She’s the distributor for exhemplarylife.com, who deals in all cool hemp products, including hemp straws.

Matt Baum:
And we just happen to give some away on our Instagram and at the end of the show, stay tuned because I get to reveal the winners on the end of the show. Super fun. Right? And I’m going to have a coupon code for you guys for 25% off your purchase at exhemplarylife.com. So, stay tuned for the end of the show for all of that, but first here’s my conversation with Carolyn about hemp plastic, hemp straws, and how we can make a more responsible and biodegradable plant-based plastic.

Hemp straws and the problem of plastic pollution

Matt Baum:
Carolyn, before we get into it, we’re going to talk about, I don’t even know what to call it quite honestly. You sent me these straws, and I looked at them and I said, “These look like plastic. They feel like plastic, when I drink out of them it feels like plastic in my mouth, but it’s not plastic. What am I holding here? What did I drink through the other day?”

Carolyn Virostek:
They absolutely do look like plastic. They feel like it, they don’t hold up as long as plastic, which is what the purpose of them is, because we don’t want them to last a 100-1000 years, our environment and our animals don’t need that. They are hemp-based product made out of hemp biomass. And then, we have two other products that we don’t actually divulge it’s proprietary, but none of it is PLA, which is something that a lot of plastics end up using if they’re trying to be compostable or biodegradable.

Carolyn Virostek:
Especially in the hemp industry, or really in a lot of the plastic industry where they’re trying to come up with alternative to fossil fuel plastics. They will use PLAs, sometimes a PHA, but the PLAs are the biggest ones, which, I don’t want to sound like I’m negative against PLAs, they’re great because they are a plant base, but they still have their issues with how they break down, how they need to be composted and broken down in the right environment.

Matt Baum:
Sure. So, real quick, can I ask you, what is a PLA? I have no idea, or a PLH? No clue.

Carolyn Virostek:
It’s an organic based polylactic acid, that is used as a binder within plastics as we call them. And plastic really is a term really basically, of anything that has the malleability that we can use in different products where it’s going to hold up under different circumstances. We have hard plastic, soft plastic, et cetera, but PLA is going to be an organic compound that is used as a binding agent.

Matt Baum:
Same with PLH?

Carolyn Virostek:
Right. A lot of times it’s made out of corn starch, sugar cane, and now they’re even starting to make it out of other products too, even coconut shells. So PLAs can be made from many different products.

Matt Baum:
But in these PLA products, they still have plastic in them. They’re still petroleum-based plastics that these are incorporated into?

Carolyn Virostek:
No. That’s the difference, PLAs won’t have the petroleum base. It is an advantage to use the PLAs, because we’re not using the petroleum-base, because that’s a completely different animal. And that’s what we’re trying to get away from, because petroleum-based takes so much more energy to produce, actually just to extract from the earth, to refine it and then produce it.

Carolyn Virostek:
That in itself is toxic to the environment as well as the actual product. And then what do you do with that product when you’re done with it? After drinking that water bottle that you just had for maybe an hour, what are you going to do with it? And what’s going to happen to it? Or you throw it in the garbage and it’s there for 1000 years.

Matt Baum:
Right. Aliens, discover it after human society has been wiped from the earth and go, “Well, I wonder what they did with this trash.”

Carolyn Virostek:
Right. Why did they make these? What’s this purposed for? It really does make you think about, “Well, do we really need all these plastics all the time? And how long is it going to be in our environment?” And we’re finding that it’s not good, that we are finding huge portions of it on islands where humans have not even inhabited, but here these plastics are washing up on shores.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. And like rafts of plastic that gather in the middle of the ocean and stuff, it’s insane, it’s absolutely insane.

Carolyn Virostek:
It is. And we just keep making more and more plastic, because the oil industry puts a lot of money into it and they want to keep it going.

Matt Baum:
It’s cheap too. So why not?

Carolyn Virostek:
It’s very cheap according to them. Now that brings into another conversation I have, we can say, “Yeah, it’s cheap, plastics are cheap.” And that’s the comparison between our straws, is that, our straws are more expensive than plastic. And that’s one of the issues that people have with it. And my comment as well, “You can either pay for it now, or you can pay for it later.”

Carolyn Virostek:
Because when you use plastics that are oil-based, first of all, you do pay for it. In that you’re extracting a finite material from the earth. We can’t make more of that. Whereas hemp, we can grow it every couple of months, every few months we’ve got a whole new crop.

Matt Baum:
Exactly.

Carolyn Virostek:
And it also is great for the environment. We’re not causing more toxicity by growing hemp, whereas oil, how it’s even processed and refined that takes toxicity, puts toxic waste into the environment. So right then and there, we do want to look at the cost to the environment, just in bringing it to the market. And then when we have a product just like in plastics, in our bottles or our hemp straws, one, we find it out in the rivers or out in the creeks or wherever we are.

Matt Baum:
Or in the bellies of dead animals even.

Carolyn Virostek:
Exactly, in the ocean, and then we’re losing animals because they’re eating it. It goes back to where we find the material, we have to go and get it. You’ve got to bring it in from the trash that it is, the pollution that it is. Then we have to find a way to process it. Process it into a new material to make something new.

Carolyn Virostek:
If we do that, a lot of times, many countries still burn all their plastics. So we’re increasing the toxic waste into the environment by burning it. But for them, it’s a lot easier to be able to just burn it than to actually process it into something new.

Matt Baum:
It’s cheap, right?

Carolyn Virostek:
That’s what they say, it’s cheap.

Matt Baum:
You can put those blinders on and just say, “Well, yeah, but it’s less expensive, and it does the job. And I don’t have to think about it when it gets thrown away.” But that’s not the case. Just like you said, we are pulling oil out of the earth. We are then doing something toxic to the environment to create this plastic straw that you use one time, you literally use one time and then you throw it away. And then the earth pays for it for 1000 damn years.

The problem with PLAs

Matt Baum:
We know we’re trying to get away from that, and PLH is a step better, but it’s not as good as what’s being used in these hemp straws. Now, what is the difference? You said PLH, doesn’t quite break down the same basically. It’s less durable, or it’s more durable, before we get into what’s in the hemp straws, What is the problem with PLAs?

Carolyn Virostek:
The problem with that is, and even some chemists are still debating on what it is, as far as, are PLAs biodegradable, or are they just degradable?

Matt Baum:
So we don’t even know?

Carolyn:
There’s debate, you can get one scientist. “Well, no, it’s absolutely biodegradable.” And another one will go, “It breaks down, but it’s not really biodegradable.” If we even look at that, if I can just come up with a biodegradable versus compostable, that’s the other thing, if something is deemed certified compostable, it’s also biodegradable, but something that’s biodegradable is not compostable.

Matt Baum:
Yes. Not all things that are biodegradable are compostable, but all things that are compostable are biodegradable?

Carolyn Virostek:
Right. And with the PLAs, they do debate on that. And we can say it does degrade, but it just takes longer. So PLAs can biodegrade in, as I’ve seen it as short as four years, but the average is about 80 years. So again, it will break down and it doesn’t have the toxic residue that an oil-based plastic will, if it were to break down, but it still has a cost to the environment, because these PLAs as a plastic, quote-unquote, “Break down into smaller finer materials, which then become microplastics.”

Carolyn Virostek:
And those microplastics are what we’re finding in the billions in the oceans and our creeks, and even in the glaciers, and even at the top of the mountains where it’s actually raining and snowing down in those particles, they’re such fine particles. We do find plastic bottles, plastic bags, in the stomachs of the sea life.

Carolyn Virostek:
But we’re also finding these microplastics in the smaller forms. They can’t eat a big bottle, but they’re still eating these microplastics thinking that they’re food, and they’re either dying from it or they’re carrying it on to us. So even our urine, they’re finding huge amounts of microplastics in our system.

Matt Baum:
So does it break down? Yes. But it breaks down just into really small plastic. It doesn’t break down into something that is combustible even, or compostable. It’s just really, really little pieces. And that’s not an answer either. We don’t want that.

Carolyn Virostek:
Right. With compostable, something that’s compostable, that’s going to break down and may compost. Then we can use that, that’s something usable, but when it just breaks down into microplastics, into smaller parts of it, it’s not usable and it’s not ideal.

Matt Baum:
And still dangerous.

Carolyn Virostek:
It’s still dangerous. I don’t want to make it out to be this horrible thing, because it’s a lot better than using the fossil fuels, but we still have to move a little further along to make it the right product.

Hemp straws & how they’re made

Matt Baum:
So tell me about the hemp straws then. What are these made of, and how does something that feels so completely plastic, both in your mouth and in your hand and does the job, how is it completely compostable?

Carolyn Virostek:
Well, the biggest thing is the plant, hemp. You and I both are advocates of the hemp plant.

Matt Baum:
Absolutely, it’s why we are here.

Carolyn Virostek:
Because, it can do so much for us. How many plants do we know that you could use the seeds, the fiber and the pulp, and make so many products? One of the big taglines is that, hemp can make 25,000 products. Well, that’s actually a disservice. I think it can make a lot more than 25,000 products.

Matt Baum:
Oh yeah. Totally agree.

Carolyn Virostek:
Hemp is a cellulose based product as a plant, it has cellulose just like sugar, just like the sugar cane would, even has cellulose. These are products that are used in quote-unquote “Plastics to make material.” Because, cellulose is the binding agent. It helps to support that. And as you look at hemp, the stalks and the biomass, it’s very fibrous, it’s much more fibers than wood, and that’s what gives us its strength too.

Carolyn Virostek:
If we can make hemp into say, a fine powder, and compress it under heat with some other elements that are plant-based too, is what we use. Those can actually form a very strong material in a very simple way. It can be complicated, but then it can also be very simplified. You can watch YouTube videos, where people make this in their kitchen, where they take cornstarch and water, heat it up and they make a little plastic out of it. So, hemp that’s what we’re doing also, is we’re taking hemp and making it very fine powder, like a starch and adding other materials to help bind it. And then it gets heated up and formed into straws.

Matt Baum:
So, it literally melts basically, and the cellulose works with the other binders and holds it together. And at that point you can form it just like plastic? You put it around a dowel and it becomes a straw?

Carolyn Virostek:
Exactly. Exactly. They do make them into little pellets, just like they do with the plastic, so that they can put it into the extruder machines, so they don’t have to adapt the machines for the product, but the product gets adapted for the machines. With that, then the pellets are made very small, just so they can be added to the machine. And then they get melted within that process, going through the extruder and that’s what helps to make them, now there are many products that can be made out of it too. And that’s in the futures bags, cups, you name it.

Matt Baum:
Sure. Sure. Now let me ask you, is clear a problem. Because I’ve heard in hemp plastics clear is very difficult, because of the nature of the plant green and brown, super easy?

Carolyn Virostek:
Exactly, super easy.

Matt Baum:
But clear seems to be a problem still?

Carolyn Virostek:
Yeah. Yeah. You can’t really do a clear straw, but you can do an opaque straw or we do add colors and the colors that we add are standard colors that we are able to use in the industry that are, I’m not gonna say completely plant-based natural, but they are more natural. They are able to use them to color it into any color that you need. But people do like the natural color as a hemp straw though.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. It makes sense that it’s green. It comes from hemp. I like it. It differentiates it, if nothing else. Let me ask, I take my hemp straw, I drink my drink, I throw my hemp straw away or I compost it. I actually have a compost pile in my backyard. Take it out, throw in the compost pile. How long before it’s gone?

Carolyn Virostek:
Well, it depends on your compost really, because anytime you… I would love to say that every single one’s going to compost in a certain time, but it’s going to be different. In fact, industrial composting is going to be the fastest and the best because they’re going to control the oxygen in there. They’re going to control the heat and even the microbes and all the little critters that are going to go in there and eat it up to make it into compost. How that’s going to be in your compost, is going to vary. How’s it going to change from day to day, let alone month to month, with all the different seasons.

Matt Baum:
Sure. So, let’s say industrial compost, a best case scenario?

Carolyn Virostek:
We’ve seen them biodegrade completely in 120 days.

Matt Baum:
That’s amazing. That’s like paper.

Carolyn Virostek:
Yeah. When we look at the compost, there’s really nothing that’s in there. There’s no residue. That’s the other great thing, is that a lot of times you will find some residue from that because of some of the materials that they use gunks up the systems, and facilities that are compostable facilities are very picky about what they allow in, because it will mess up their whole system.

Carolyn Virostek:
And so, you have to be certified through the BPI world compostable and biodegradable. They will give you certifications on your product, which we do have. In fact, here in Pittsburgh, we have a company that does do the compost, and they actually go around to the restaurants and bring in all their compostable material, and they found our straws and they contacted us because they said, “Are you guys really compostable? Can you share that with me?” And I said, “Yes, it is.” And gave him the information.

Carolyn Virostek:
Because he said, “Otherwise we have to pull it out.” Because it’ll just gunk up the system. I said, “No, you really will not have an issue with it.” And that’s something that you can’t say about every product that is a PLA, and even PLAs if you send them in the landfill, people think, “Oh, we’re in the landfill, if it’s biodegradable it will breakdown.” Actually it won’t, because landfills seal them up and you have no oxygen, without oxygen it’s not going to break down, and it can actually create more methane gas. It’s same as a plastic, if it’s trying to break down in that environment, because it’s not the appropriate environment.

Matt Baum:
So, I say it’s like for a month and we say no more food garbage, your food garbage goes over here. And we’ll compost that because it’s so much methane builds up when you seal it and put it away in an airtight coffin. You’ve basically created a bomb, a methane bomb at that point. Is this different than other hemp plastics? Because, I’ve spoken to some people recently on the show and brought up that like, “Oh yeah, I just did an interview with some people about hemp plastic and stuff.”

Is hemp plastic really sustainable?

Matt Baum:
And a couple of them are like, “Oh, hemp plastic? Huh. You know about that?” And I was like, “Well, I don’t follow. What do you mean?” And they’re like, “It’s a lot of hemp filler, and it’s still a lot of plastic.” Is this different than that? Have you encountered that elsewhere? And are they lying to me? Because, I’ve bought some hemp plastic products and felt really good. Like, “It’s made of hemp plastic.” Does that mean that there are different levels of this, and you’ve got to watch out for it basically?

Carolyn Virostek:
Yeah. If you look at say the 3d printers, which is a lot of hemp plastic, which again, I think it’s great that they’re using hemp and they’re wanting to make things compostable and biodegradable. But a lot of them are going to be with a PLA or PHA, which is another one too, which is actually really good. I think it would be better if we did start using PHAs more than the PLAs, but they’re still not using that.

Carolyn Virostek:
But a lot of the 3d plastic filament, I’ve not been able to find one that does not have PLAs in there. Now, they do have different components even, or I should say substance, or where it might be 25% hemp, 40%, 60%. There’s very few companies that do anything to 90, to a 100%. Now there is a company that is in France and even in Canada, where they have really a much higher percentage of hemp in their plastic.

Carolyn Virostek:
Again, we use that term. But in their filaments, they do have a much better process that they’re using and they’re trying to break into the industry and they’re doing well with it, but there’s still very few companies that are doing that.

Matt Baum:
What can you look for? I’m just curious. Is there a question that you can ask? Is there something you can look for, when you see someone that is working with hemp plastic or some way? What do I ask them to make sure… I understand it’s good that they’re using any hemp as a filler, because less plastic better, but if it’s just a filler and there’s still plastic in it, or there’s these PLAs in it and whatnot, what is the question we should be asking to make sure that we’re getting responsibly made hemp plastic, that’s going to break down and it is compostable? Is it just as simple as saying, “Hey, is this compostable?”

Carolyn Virostek:
That’s one of the questions, yeah. “Is it compostable?” And how long does it take? And also, is it a PLA? If it’s a PLA, then we know that it’s going to break down into microplastics and it’s going to take longer for it to break down, and it’s not going to be compostable it’s biodegradable, but not compostable.

Matt Baum:
And they’re going to know, if I say the word, “Hey are their PLAs in this?” They’re going to go, “Oh, this guy knows what he’s talking about.”

Carolyn Virostek:
Well, they’re going to say, “Yeah, there are PLAs, but it’s compostable.” And that’s okay. Yeah, it is. I would much rather have a 25% hemp than a no hemp, and 25% with PLA than an oil based fossil fuel that they’re using.

Matt Baum:
Definitely.

Carolyn Virostek:
That would be one thing, “Are you using any fossil fuels?” Because some will still even use PLA with some fossil fuels to bind it up, to make a little bit stronger, but then we changed the compostable ability as well as the bio-degradability.

Matt Baum:
That’s exactly the subject that was brought up with the person I was speaking with, who I’m not going to name because they asked me not to, because they’re like, “I don’t want to mess up anyone else’s good thing.” And he’s like, “But a lot of these people that are working in hemp plastic now are literally just incorporating it into old fashion oil-based plastics and using it as a filler.” Which again, better but not the answer, not what we want.

Matt Baum:
The idea is to move to something closer to these hemp straws that like you said, “Reduce in to powder, you’re adding some…” And I’m not sure, I’m not even me to look for the scientific terms, what you add to make a bind, but you heat it up and boom, we have plastic. What is the future of this? Where does this go? Is this something that you… The straws I think are so important, because if you look at single waste plastic, that is the biggest form of plastic waste out there.

The future of hemp straws

Matt Baum:
It’s not children’s toys, or even industrial plastics, it’s single use plastic. So, obviously like you said, these are a little more expensive, but the idea behind it, is it’s more responsible. Are people responding to that? Are people excited about this? Are people willing to spend a little more? And do you think this is something that is going to catch on and start to get major plastic producers to pay attention?

Carolyn Virostek:
Absolutely. There’s an excitement about it, because of the property of hemp, as well as not having the PLAs. And it is more expensive. So it is something that we have to try to get them to understand, that you either pay for it now or pay for it later. You can either pay for the straws as a cheap component and then pay for it later in the processing of having to get it off the beaches and out of the waters, et cetera, or you pay a little bit more now and then that worry is less.

Carolyn Virostek:
We still have to be responsible in how we dispose them and how we compost them. But it’s something that, if it does end up in the ocean or in the waters, it’s going to break down and we don’t have to be so concerned about the toxic residue that it might leave behind.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. It’s perfect.

Carolyn Virostek:
It’s very exciting. We have a lot of people excited about it. I will say the environment right now with the pandemic, everything’s shut down. It’s cooled things off, but what it has done also is made people more excited about realizing we need to do something now, this is not something that we need to put off for five years or try to work it into the budget because again, we either pay for them now, or we pay for that cost later. And I think right now people are really excited about having something that they know is going to break down and is not going to linger in our environment for years and years.

Matt Baum:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but sounds it like, I would guess anyway, that the price is only high because there aren’t a lot of people making this stuff yet. And as more people get into the business of making hemp plastic, that price is going to come down. Is it just a matter of producers? Because it seems like every aspect of the hemp business at present, and not just at present, but in the last we’ll say four years, their biggest issue has been finding producers to do the work.

Matt Baum:
Basically, we’ve got farmers, that’ll grow it and that’s great. But what happens next? Whether it’s going to a place that’s going to extract CBD, or take out the fiber or grind the seeds, is this just another case of, “We just need more people doing this?”

Carolyn Virostek:
Yeah. And knowing how to do it. Absolutely, because even though we are farming a lot more hemp than we were even a year ago. And a lot of companies say we’ve got so much biomass that we don’t even have the buyers for it. What it is, is that they actually don’t have the equipment or the know-how, to process it the way that they want it to, and that machinery is millions and millions of dollars.

Carolyn Virostek:
They’re bringing it out, but we’re in the growing pains, of learning how to use this product and how to use it in the best way that we can environmentally and being able to process it without any waste too. Because, we really can’t use the entire plant. We just need to know how and have the proper equipment. So, we’re in a big learning curve right now, growing pains with that.

Matt Baum:
How far off do you think we are? And just call your shot. No, one’s going to hold you to this. No, one’s going to look at the podcast in five years and be like, “Nice call.” But how far off do you think we are before, I go to Starbucks and I get a hemp straw?

Carolyn Virostek:
I’m hoping a year to two years.

Matt Baum:
Wow. Really?

Carolyn Virostek:
Yeah. That’s absolutely my hope.

Matt Baum:
That’s awesome.

Carolyn Virostek:
I will say that we had really big clients on the list, until the pandemic shut everything down. Really big companies similar to Starbucks. So it’s on the cusp there. People are wanting and ready. It’s just now we’ve we need the economy to just support it too.

Matt Baum:
So we’ve got the machines, we know how to do it. We’ve got people growing it, now it’s just a matter of showing people. Not only is this the responsible thing to do, it’s the right thing to do. And it’s a cost-effective thing to do, if we put a little know-how into it and that’s basically it, that’s our biggest issue. Just getting them to try it more or less.

Growing hemp for sustainability

Carolyn Virostek:
Yeah. Yeah. And then it will come down to a point where we do need more farmers for that biomass, because one farm is not going to be able to supply the biomass for Starbucks.

Matt Baum:
Absolutely.

Carolyn Virostek:
That’s our hope, is that we have so much demand for it that we need more farmers to be able to supply that biomass.

Matt Baum:
It also seems like there’s a lot of farmers that went into this, with the CBD gold rush idea where like, “I’m going to grow hemp and sell to CBD weirdos, and they’re going to turn it into all kinds of fake drugs for hippies and I’m going to make money.” And then they went, “Oh, that market’s not quite there.”

Matt Baum:
And in the meantime, the fiber farmers weren’t as plentiful. Because again, it seems like they’re won as many, I want to say, industrial companies that were working in hemp fiber, is that part of the issue too? Just convincing people that like, “Hey, it’s not all CBD. We can grow this for fiber and seed as well?”

Carolyn Virostek:
It’s that as well as the machinery. In order to break the hemp down into the product that you need it for, whether it’s for clothing or for, quote-unquote “plastics.” It’s having the correct machinery to break it down. And that I think is what has slowed a lot of companies down into processing it. The hemp is the passion of mine. I really do think that we should be using it more. I feel I know maybe a half a percent of what we could know about the plant, but I think we’re still learning.

Matt Baum:
That’s the most exciting part though, right?

Carolyn Virostek:
Exactly.

Matt Baum:
It’s like, how many other plants out there that farmers in the United States, in Iowa, in Nebraska, in Kentucky, in Colorado are growing right now where we’re like, “Oh my God, there’s so much more we could do with this.” What can we learn about this? It’s like, if we found out, like, “Look at that corn, we can build skyscrapers out of it.” Who knew?

Carolyn Virostek:
Who knew we could refill a car out of the corn oil?

Matt Baum:
Right. It’s crazy.

Carolyn:
We can do it, but are we doing it? That’s the same thing with hemp. We can make all these products. Why aren’t we?

Matt Baum:
Exactly.

Carolyn Virostek:
One, it is the infrastructure is not there. Also, we still have regulations that limit what can be done, in some States they’re not allowed to use the biomass or the fibers or anything for animal bedding, even just simple as that, or animal feed.

Matt Baum:
Let alone animal feed. They won’t even let them lay around in it for a fair. Like, is the cow going to get stoned? Come on, it’s ridiculous.

Carolyn Virostek:
Those things just make you question like, “Really, why aren’t we using it more?” Just like flax, that’s a plant too that can be used, and my great, great grandfather brought it over from Ireland in the 1850s to Canada. And I didn’t realize this until a few years ago when I started looking at the hemp and then I realized that he actually wrote a book in Canada about flax and the importance of flax for the fiber, for clothing, for so many different things, for food. He had a big part in bringing flax over to North America, but we’re still not using flax even to the point where we could be. Hemp is the same thing.

Matt Baum:
We put it in smoothies, and that’s about it, because it helps in digestion. Right? You can do so much more with it. It’s crazy.

Carolyn Virostek:
With hemp, even making clothing and building materials, if you’ve seen hemp wood, there’s a company, Hemp Wood.

Matt Baum:
I just interviewed them. I just interviewed them on the show. They were fantastic.

Carolyn Virostek:
I love their wood. With Hempcrete, what I think we should be doing is, especially in California, Colorado, Oregon, with all these forest fires, we need to rebuild with hemp, because if you can put a blow torch on hempcrete, why aren’t we building-

Matt Baum:
Same with hemp wood. Hemp wood barely burns, it’s crazy.

Carolyn Virostek:
And they’re antibacterial, antimicrobial. Why aren’t we using this down in South when they’ve got all these floods and hurricanes, because if it gets wet, all you got to do is bring in a dehumidifier and let it dry out.

Matt Baum:
Right. And you are good to go.

Carolyn Virostek:
Whereas now you got to tear down the whole structure because it turns to mold and mildew within three days.

Matt Baum:
Oh, but there’s a whole cottage industry for that too. So they might not be happy about losing their jobs.

Carolyn Virostek:
Exactly. And that’s why the fossil fuel industry pays $125 million a year to lobby, to keep their oils in the plastic industry. It’s just the same thing with everything else. I think we’re going to be moving towards that more and more, building materials, clothing, containers, furniture, I really hope that we can.

Matt Baum:
It’s unavoidable, because oil is going to get more and more expensive and more and more bizarre. And the ways we have to find it, we’re filtering it out of sand and stuff now, it’s going to get more and more expensive, and hemp like you said, they can grow it in a month.

Carolyn Virostek:
Right. And it doesn’t have toxic byproducts. If you fracking all that toxic byproducts that comes from the waters and it contaminates that, where is how it actually can heal the land. And creates more carbon dioxide for us. And it really can help in healing the planet. So yeah. Why aren’t we using more of it? And it’s all political, but we’re getting there.

Matt Baum:
Of course. It’s going to happen. I feel good about it. You feel good about it, we feel good about it. Right?

Carolyn Virostek:
Well, the other thing is that if you look at Europe, they’re way ahead of the game, they’ve been making clothes for decades. Now, they’re even making their cars out of hemp, the internal components, the dashboards and things are made out of hemp because it’s stronger, it’s lighter weight. So it makes the gas mileage even better.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. I interviewed a company that works with Maserati, Mercedes. It’s not like they’re making junk here. They’re making hemp plastic for very expensive high-end cars. And I asked him, “Why don’t we do this in the US?” And he goes, “Well, we don’t really want to mess with all your BS right now, as soon as you guys figure it out, we’ll be there.”

Carolyn Virostek:
Yeah. It’s got to make you question. Why is it that Europe is already making them, but we don’t have the American car manufacturer?

Matt Baum:
It’s shamefully stupid, is what it is.

Carolyn Virostek:
We also know that cars don’t have to rely on fossil fuels. Right? We can be using corn oil, hemp oil to run our cars.

Matt Baum:
Or electricity.

Carolyn Virostek:
Right. They want to tax people if they use solar energy. And it’s government regulations that are backed by these big corporations that are feeling threatened. And that’s why we lost cannabis to begin with in the 1930s, was because of political and corporate concern about getting into their space. And we’re just dealing with that in 2020.

Matt Baum:
That’s why they’re hesitating to bring it back too. I don’t want to take up any more of your time. This has been fantastic. Thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you for the straws. They’re great.

Carolyn Virostek:
Oh, you’re welcome. Thank you, Matt. I really appreciate you having me on, and making me feel at ease.

Matt Baum:
Totally. I took a box of the straws up to my local coffee shop and I was like, “Check it out. These are hemp straws.” And they were like, “Oh my God, these are amazing.” It’s like super or liberal, where you go to see dudes having Marxist conversations and stuff in Omaha, in our little blue pocket of Nebraska here in Omaha, but they loved them. So I’ll put them in touch. I’ll definitely put them in touch so they can order some.

Carolyn Virostek:
Great. Thank you, Matt. I appreciate it.

Hemp straws contest winners & Exhemplary Life coupon

Matt Baum:
Carolyn was wonderful to talk to, and she’s the type of person that is very passionate about hemp. And I love speaking to people like that. Funny story, when she initially started and I told her I wasn’t going to mention this on the show, but I thought it was funny enough that you guys should know.

Matt Baum:
When we first started talking, she was really worried that we may not be able to use the interview, because she doesn’t normally talk about this stuff. And she’s not from a science background, but as you can see, she is very well-versed in hemp plastics and bio-plastics, and it was so nice to talk to her. Thank you so much for coming on the show, Carolyn, I will have links to exhemplarylife.com in the show notes. And, like I promised you, if you use the coupon code 25 off that’s 25OFF, you will get 25% off your first purchase at exhemplarylife.com. That’s 25OFF, 25 off use that code.

Matt Baum:
Let them know that you heard about their site here on the Ministry of Hemp podcast and let them know that you appreciate what they are doing on their site. And as always, because we believe that the world is a better place for all when it’s more accessible, we have a full written transcript of this show in the show notes as well.

Matt Baum:
And now it’s contest time as promised. I get to announce the three winners of our exemplary life and Ministry of Hemp, Instagram giveaway, congratulations to @ritualsofthekitchen, @xtra_salt_xtra_lime, and @Kateanne27. You are all big winners of hemp straws and Ministry of Hemp stickers. So go tell every money you win big, when you listen to the Ministry of Hemp podcast. Oh, follow us on Instagram too, more about that in just a moment.

Final thoughts from Matt

Matt Baum:
And that brings us to the end of another exciting episode of the Ministry of Hemp podcast. If you dig what we do here on this show, and you think that hemp can change the world, the best way you can support us is to go to Patreon.com/ministryofhemp and become a Ministry of Hemp insider. It is an awesome way to help us spread the word. And you could access to podcast extras, early articles, all kinds of other stuff, not to mention you can feel better knowing you’re helping us spread the good word of hemp education.

Matt Baum:
And if you need more hemp education in your life, get over to ministryofhemp.com. Check out all our awesome articles there. Follow us on Instagram, on Twitter, on Facebook, we are either at Ministry of Hemp or /Ministry of Hemp, maybe you got hemp questions. Maybe you’ve got some subjects you’d like to hear me talk about on the show.

Matt Baum:
Call me, leave me a message. And tell me about it. 402-819-6417. Leave me a message on our Ministry of Hemp voice line. And I might answer your question on the show with little help and Drew and Kate and maybe even Deseret who you’re going to hear from soon. She’s great. She’s our videographer. We love her. Again, that number is 402-819-6417. Call us, ask your questions and you might hear us answer them right here on the show.

Matt Baum:
Now, I hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Remember to wash your hands. I hope you’re not traveling. And if you are out there and be extra careful, please wear a mask the time for me to get out of here. And I like to sign off the same way every time by saying, “Remember to take care of yourself, remember to take care of others and make good decisions, will you?” This is Matt Baum with the Ministry of Hemp.
Signing off.

The post Hemp Straws And The Sustainability Of Hemp With Exhemplary Life appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.

Exhemplary Life Hemp Straws are a non-toxic alternative to plastic drinking straws that begin to biodegrade after 120 days. But unlike paper straws and some other natural alternatives, they won’t break down in your cold drinks!

These straws are amazing — they feel and work just like plastic straws but they are plastic free. Exhemplary Life Hemp Straws are even free from PLAs, a common ingredient in most hemp-based plastic products that is very slow to break down. As a result, they biodegrade much faster than hemp plastic.

To enter the Exhemplary Life Hemp Straws giveaway: Follow @Exhemplarylife and @Ministryofhemp on Instagram. In a reply to our contest post on Ministry of Hemp’s Instagram, tag a friend and tell us something you’d like to see made out of hemp. At the end of the giveaway, we’ll pick three winners who will receive a box of hemp straws and a couple of Ministry of Hemp stickers.

Check our podcast and Instagram next week for a list of winners, and a special Exhemplary Life coupon.

Exhemplary Life Hemp Straws Giveaway: Complete contest rules

• This contest runs from November 20, 2020 until November 23, 2020 at 5:00pm Central.
• This contest is sponsored by Ministry of Hemp and Exhemplary Life. It is not sponsored, endorsed, administrated by or associated with Instagram in any way.
• This contest is only open to residents of the United States.
• To enter, like our contest post on Instagram and, in a comment on the post, @tag at least one friend’s Instagram account and tell us something you’d like to see made out of hemp. Be sure to also follow @Exhemplarylife and @Ministryofhemp.
• Contest entries are limited to one entry per person. Additional entries will be ignored.
• After the contest ends, Ministry of Hemp will select 3 winners and contact them via Instagram direct messaging. We reserve the right to pick a new winner if we can’t reach you in a reasonable amount of time.
• Each winner will receive one (1) box of Exhemplary Life Hemp Straws and two (2) Ministry of Hemp stickers. Exhemplary Life and Ministry of Hemp will cover all shipping costs.
• At the end of the contest, we’ll announce the winners on our Instagram and our Podcast. We’ll also publish a special coupon for Exhemplary Life products.

The post Enter Our Exhemplary Life Hemp Straws Giveaway On Instagram appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.

Shoes. We all wear them, some even collect hundreds of pairs. But did you know up to 300 million pairs of shoes make their way to landfills every year. According to thechicecologist.com shoes make up a massive portion of waste in landfills and some elements of athletic shoes can take up to 1000 years to decompose.

In this episode of the Ministry of Hemp podcast, Matt sits down with Bernardo Carreira, CEO of 8000Kicks, to discuss their new line of hemp fabric-based shoes with bio-plastic soles. They talk about the impact an ecologically friendly shoe can have on the environment, the difficulties of running a start-up with a mission, and the ways hemp and bioplastic continue to prove to be sustainable replacements for oil-based plastics and fibers.

Update: Due to popular demand, 8000Kicks provided us with a coupon code. Use coupon ‘moh10‘ to get 10% off their hemp shoes!

You’ve got hemp questions? We’ve got hemp answers!

Send us your hemp questions and you might hear them answered on one of our Hemp Q&A episodes. Send your written questions to us on Twitter, Facebook, matt@ministryofhemp.com, or call us and leave a message at 402-819-6417. Keep in mind, this phone number is for hemp questions only and any other inquiries for the Ministry of Hemp should be sent to info@ministryofhemp.com

Subscribe to our show!

Be sure to subscribe to the Ministry of Hemp podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podbay, Stitcher, Pocketcasts, Google Play or your favorite podcast app. If you like what your hear leave us a review or star rating. It’s a quick and easy way to help get this show to others looking for Hemp information and please, share this episode on your own social media!

Become a Ministry of Hemp Insider and help spread the good word!

If you believe hemp can change the world then help us spread the word! Become a Ministry of Hemp Insider when you donate any amount on our Patreon page!

You’ll be the first to hear about everything going on with our special newsletter plus exclusive Patron content including blogs, podcast extras, and more. Visit the Ministry of Hemp on Patreon and become an Insider now!

Sustainable hemp shoes: Complete episode transcript

Below you’ll find the complete transcript of episode 58 of the Ministry of Hemp podcast, “Hemp Shoes Are Part Of A More Sustainable Future”:

Matt Baum:
I’m Matt Baum. And, this is the Ministry of Hemp Podcast, brought to you by ministryofhemp.com, America’s leading advocate for hemp and hemp education. Welcome back to the Ministry of Hemp Podcast. My name is Matt Baum. And, today on the show, we are going to talk about shoes, specifically shoes made of hemp. But before we get into that, let’s talk about shoes for a minute. I love shoes. I’m a huge shoe guy. I’m not like walk-in closet full of shoes, kind of guy; but I do love shoes, Adidas, Nike, Vans. I’m a huge fan. I hold on to them. I keep them clean. I like them to look good, but eventually they do get old. And then, I get rid of them. Oftentimes, I’ll take them to a secondhand clothing store. I try not to just throw them away. I’ll donate them. But, until I started working on this episode, I honestly didn’t even think about how much plastic goes into shoes, and how long they stick around.

Matt Baum:
According to thechicecologist.com, it’s estimated that 20 billion pairs of shoes are produced annually, with roughly 300 million pairs ending up in landfills, after they’ve been worn. The ethylene vinyl acetate, which usually makes up the mid-sole of most running shoes can last for as long as a thousand years in a landfill, a thousand years. And, that is absolutely insane. The good news is, there’s people out there that are worried about this, and thinking about it, and have even started making a more ecologically responsible shoe. Today on the show, my conversation is with Bernardo Carreira. He’s a CEO of 8000Kicks, and 8000Kicks are making an all-purpose athletic shoe, if you will, out of hemp and algae-based plastic, and they’re pretty fricken amazing. 8000Kicks is a startup, and Bernardo is super pumped about what’s in store for the future. I’m really excited for you to hear this interview. Here’s my conversation with Barnardo Carreira, CEO of 8000Kicks.

Meet Bernardo Carreira

Bernardo Carreira:
Okay. That’s a good question, and I’m currently stuck in Portugal because of COVID Portugal.

Matt Baum:
You’re stuck in Portugal. So, where would you be normally without this COVID business? Where would you be?

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah, actually I’m Portuguese. I’m here because my family is here.

Matt Baum:
Okay.

Bernardo Carreira:
Otherwise, I would be in the U.S. We have currently, doing some hemp production in China, so I will be in the U.S. or China. But now, I cannot go to either one’s. [crosstalk 00:00:02:55].

Matt Baum:
Got to love it, right. Which makes business really easy, I’m sure.

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah, of course. It’s much easier.

Matt Baum:
Tell me about, 8000Kicks. What do you guys do there? We know that you make a hemp shoe. I have some on the way, and I’m super excited. But, tell me about 8000Kicks. What goes on there?

Bernardo Carreira:
Okay. It’s a [inaudible 00:03:17] because a lot of things go in there. But, let me describe a little bit of what we do. What is the shoe that we do? It started out as an idea, how can we make a super shoe that is eco-friendly, and meets all the needs of active person, a millennial that wants to go to work; and then, go to go for a hike in the mountain.

Matt Baum:
Sure.

Bernardo Carreira:
And, a shoe for traveling, a shoe for a business, a shoe that I can wear, whatever. And, I don’t when I wear like 10 pairs of sneakers or 10 different flip-flops, every time I want to go to a different place.

Matt Baum:
Right.

Bernardo Carreira:
So, that’s the need that we faced. And, we wanted something sustainable. Because, guess what? We are millennials and we care about… We want to do things properly.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. That’s our cross to bear. We were actually care about this stuff, right?

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. Not just millennials, but it’s super awesome to see that everyone nowadays cares about this. And, our team is young and we’re like, “Let’s do things the way we want the world to be.” And, that’s how it all started. And, it all started with a stupid brainstorming session when someone had the idea of…. We’re all smoking…. Yeah, we’re a bit high there, right. Then someone came up with the idea.

Matt Baum:
That happens. I get it.

Bernardo Carreira:
Let’s make a smokable shoe, the kind of ideas that you would have when you high.

Matt Baum:
Sure.

The creation of 8000Kicks hemp shoes

Bernardo Carreira:
And, that’s how we kind of joined cannabis to the equation. Back then, we didn’t really know what we wanted to do exactly. But, we just had a stupid idea of make it, hemp. And certainly, we realized that hemp is not only eco-friendly, but it’s also super strong, super durable, and it’s also cool.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. Its very cool.

Bernardo Carreira:
Right. So, we’re like, “Okay, this is us.” “This is what we need.” And, certainly the products are changing. And okay, we need to add more. Let’s make it waterproof, because personally I lived two years in London. And, hey man, London has a big problem, which is, it rains all the time.

Matt Baum:
It rains all the time. Yeah.

Bernardo Carreira:
Day one, day two, day three, like 365 days a year.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. Its also sunny everyday, too. It’s weird, because the day starts up beautiful, then it rains. Then it’s beautiful, then it rains again. It’s so weird.

Bernardo Carreira:
Exactly. How can you have like a pair of canvas shoes? I don’t know, like a pair of All Stars. The moment you step outside, you’re soaked wet, and it’s super annoying. And, at the same time, you want to do different stuff, but after you’re wearing an All Stars for a long time, your feet kind of feel a little bit sore. So, you want to have more than that, in terms of comfort. And, we started like innovating, okay, “Let’s make something better.” Then, okay, we decide make it waterproof, but what’s next? What can we make it? And then, we decided to initially we were working with a recycled rubber sole, but now we did a crazy upgrade, where we use algae. We literally collect seaweed…

Matt Baum:
Algae, like seaweed?

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah, exactly.

Matt Baum:
Oh my God. I didn’t know this part.

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. That was a crazy innovation. You were like, “We need to stand out even more.” So, we partner with this company called Bloom, and they collect algae from algal blooms.

Matt Baum:
Okay.

Bernardo Carreira:
Why are we doing this? Because algae, first it destroys the entire ecosystem if it grows exponentially, in algal blooms. And at the same time, it has some interesting properties that we can use to make it super light. And, that’s exactly what we’ve done. We decided to incorporate some of these algae, to make what we call, bloom foam. This is the name of our project.

Matt Baum:
That’s great.

Bernardo Carreira:
And so, it’s really light. Once you receive it, you will see the shoe is like a feather. It’s really interesting.

Making eco-friendly hemp shoes

Matt Baum:
So, lets talk about that for a second. Let’s talk about everything that goes into it. First of all, you just decide, we want to make an eco-friendly shoe, but it needs to be waterproof, it needs to do everything. This isn’t just a running shoe. This is a all around shoe. And then you decide, we want to go with hemp. And you said, “You’re dealing with hemp growers in China.

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah.

Matt Baum:
How do you hook up with hemp growers in China? How does that work? Dude, [crosstalk 00:00:08:13]…

Bernardo Carreira:
[crosstalk 00:08:15] figuring it out, because I wish I knew, but it’s just knocking doors.

Matt Baum:
Just find [crosstalk 00:08:22] the right company.

Bernardo Carreira:
This was the number one struggle we had with our project. From the moment we had the idea of making a smokable shoe, until the moment that we actually had a prototype, that was like six months.

Matt Baum:
Okay.

Bernardo Carreira:
So, it’s hard.

Matt Baum:
Yeah.

Bernardo Carreira:
I mean, you can Google and you will find a lot of hemp manufacturers. The real problem is to understand the ones that actually make it good. The ones that make, what do you need, what we need. And then, you have to also understand the one that has, I mean, the good quality. And, there is the process that takes time. And then, you also have another problem, which is once you find the right one, and the one that does it well, water-proofs with the technology that you want, and you can develop the fabric the way you want; then you realize, “Okay, but we need a huge minimum order for you. And, if that was like, [crosstalk 00:09:22] really, really, really complicated.

Matt Baum:
It’s got to makes sense money-wise, too. You can’t charge $5,000 for a pair of shoes. You’ve got to figure out how to bring the price down, so.

Bernardo Carreira:
Exactly. And, the thing is they don’t let you order 10 meters. You need to order 1000 meters at once. And, that is minimum order quantities. And, that was a big struggle for us. Because, for us to achieve that quality, we had to develop from scratch. To develop from scratch, you need big quantities.

Matt Baum:
Yeah.

Bernardo Carreira:
So, it was tough, very tough. But now, we get the ball rolling, so we can now focus on bringing more innovation, and bringing more products, and continue this iteration process, and improve every step of the way.

Sneakers with bioplastic soles

Matt Baum:
Tell me about the algae bloom plastic. How did you find that? Initially, did you think, maybe we can do it with hemp foam, or hemp rubber, or something?

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. We had a lot of ideas. It’s kind of, we brainstorm a lot. And then, kind of saw this company doing this interesting stuff, and they were exploring like…. It was kind of random, I will honestly tell you. It’s like, you literally see something, okay, this is interesting, “I’m going to dig into that.”

Bernardo Carreira:
And, I sent them a few emails, and they replied, “Oh, this is interesting too.” So, we start developing it. And, this was exactly one year ago.

Matt Baum:
And, where are they out of?

Bernardo Carreira:
They’re based in the U.S.

Matt Baum:
Okay.

Bernardo Carreira:
And, they collect algae from like this algae blooms, all over the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Matt Baum:
Oh, wow.

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. We saw that they were doing some interesting stuff working with surfboards. Okay, we want to develop the same thing for our shoes. And, they were like, “Ah, this is interesting.” [crosstalk 00:11:28] Yeah. And, we eventually developing… Okay, we need more of this, more of that. And then, one year later, we launching this shoes with this technology.

Matt Baum:
It seems like a lot of this innovation comes from people like you who are just like, “Hey, can we do that?” “Is that something we should try?” And someone else was like, “Yeah, that’s weird, let’s try it.”

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. It’s a bit like that. But guess what, if you don’t try it, you don’t make it.

Matt Baum:
Exactly. So, you’ve got your prototype. You started producing shoes. Where are they going to go? Where can I buy 8000Kicks? What’s the challenge of getting these, into markets. Where’s it going to be be?

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. So, this is something that you’re trying to be very careful with. And, the thing here is, we want to control every single step of production, to delivery, and to the customer. And, the reason we do this, is because if problems happen, then… To be honest, we found problems where we did not really expect, and this allows us to… Look, I’m the CEO here, and I answer customer’s emails every day, which is not normal in a company. In most companies [crosstalk 00:12:46]…

Matt Baum:
Typically, not. [crosstalk 00:12:49] Every time I contact Apple, I certainly don’t get, Tim and the boys.

Bernardo Carreira:
Exactly. But, the reason I do that is, because it’s crazy, amount of problems you face from production to customer. And, we’re still trying to fix every single one of them, and make sure that they are properly sold, before we expand and start selling. So right now, only on our websites, and that’s because we control it. Customers have a experience that we can control, they can communicate directly with us.

Matt Baum:
Cool.

Bernardo Carreira:
We basically guarantee that they are a 100 percent happy with the product. We know [inaudible 00:13:31] they are using it, except if something goes wrong with the product, because sometimes it does; we are there to replace it, or change it, or whatever needs to be done. So, that’s how we want to make sure we grow, and we make sure we do it properly.

The challenges of making hemp shoes

Matt Baum:
So, you said there were problems you ran into that you couldn’t even foreseen. What was some of those issues? What were the biggest issues that you ran into?

Bernardo Carreira:
All right. That’s a big question. So, I’m going to tell you a funny story. [crosstalk 00:14:02] When we were shooting [crosstalk 00:14:04]…

Matt Baum:
Because success is fun, we love about success. But, the mistakes and the problem, that’s where the real story is. Right? That’s where the fun is.

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah, exactly. I will tell you a funny one. So, one of the big problems we had was, we were shipping everything out of the UK. Because it’s like, okay, this seems like a no brainer. UK is competitive worldwide prices. Let’s ship the shoes from the UK to the U.S. And, knowing freight time is kind of fast. Let’s do it. Suddenly we realized, that customer’s got the shoes in the U.S. And, imagine you buy a shoe, we ship it from the UK, and it’s the wrong size.

Matt Baum:
Oh yeah, because UK sizing and U.S. sizing is different.

Bernardo Carreira:
No, not really actually. We have the shoes in U.S. sizes.

Matt Baum:
Oh, gotcha. But, I got my shoes.

Bernardo Carreira:
Sometimes, people order the wrong size.

Matt Baum:
Okay. Gotcha.

Bernardo Carreira:
So we just say, “Hey, you can ship the shoes back to us, we don’t have a return…” “Right now, we’re working and we going to launch a free return service.” But imagine that, for exchanges, we were like, “Okay, just send us a shoe back, we’re going to exchange it. And then, some customers were like, “Oh, this is impossible, “I’m paying like…”

Matt Baum:
Yeah. It’s like 20 bucks, 30 bucks to send it back to UK.

Bernardo Carreira:
And, we were like, “Oh, really?” We were like, “We’re not expecting this.” We thought it was like… Okay, we thought was kind of cheap.

Matt Baum:
Cheap for you, because you’re sending so many. But, when it’s one person sending one box, that’s a whole different story, so.

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. So we were like, this is a problem because we cannot allow our customers to pay this [inaudible 00:15:49] for an exchange. I mean, if I was a customer, I’ll be a bit annoyed.

Matt Baum:
Sure.

Bernardo Carreira:
This is a really funny story. I was looking for a student in the U.S., and I hired him. And I said, “Bro, I’m going to pay you to receive our shoes.” “I’m going to send you spare boxes, and I’m going to send you a cleaning kit.” “You’re going to receive the shoes, you’re going to exchange them; and you’re going to send [inaudible 00:16:21] shoe to the right customers.” And, basically we had a student working in the U.S., helping do all the exchanges for us.

Matt Baum:
It’s like own little private, like UPS hub, basically. And, it’s just like one dude, cleaning shoes, and mailing them out.

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. I mean, this guy saved our life. I mean, customers were like, “Man, this is impossible.” “We cannot ship the shoes back to the UK.” And, they like [inaudible 00:16:48]. And then, we found this solution. It was really funny. You had a fulfillment center in Florida from the student, which is kind of funny.

Matt Baum:
That’s awesome. Is he still with the company, or has he graduated and moved on?

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah, he graduated.

Matt Baum:
Ah, that’s too bad. It’s hard to find good help. You know? So, have you heard…

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. We still get in touch with him, and eventually got some spare shoes. Some shoes never got used, never got shipped, so he got pretty happy with two or three pairs of shoes for himself.

Competing with other shoes

Matt Baum:
Hey, that’s not bad. Have you heard that from any of the big boys yet? Have you heard from like Adidas, or Nike, or anything? Have they been poking around, see what you’re doing? Is anyone else doing stuff like this, right now, with shoes?

Bernardo Carreira:
I mean, with hemp, there are a few companies. We already got some copycats.

Matt Baum:
Yeah, of course.

Bernardo Carreira:
Which to be honest, if it were like… I mean, it’s always like mixed feelings, right. You get a copycat, you feel like, “Oh, these guys here…”

Matt Baum:
It’s a compliment. But it’s a compliment, right? I mean, they’re saying like, “Hey, these guys have a good idea.”

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah, we see it as a complement.

Matt Baum:
“Let’s do what they’re doing.”

Bernardo Carreira:
Exactly. And to be honest, more than a compliment we see it as like these guys if they’re doing it right, and by using hemp itself, it’s just already amazing. Okay, perfect. We want to make hemp great again. If other shoe companies use hemp as well, that will be awesome. That means, we are achieving our vision of making hemp great again. And also, it’s a compliment for our business as well. And I mean, it’s a little bit like, you always feel very low, these guys are…

Matt Baum:
Right.

Bernardo Carreira:
But in the end, I think you need to take like… You cannot be selfish, and you need to be a little bit more altruistic towards what’s happening overall, rather than you.

Matt Baum:
Yeah.

Bernardo Carreira:
I mean, you have to understand that, it’s bigger than you, it’s bigger than you selling shoes. It’s, you’re creating something for the planet, not just for you.

Matt Baum:
If, everybody started copying you, the world would be a better place. And sure, you’ve got a lot of competition, but hey, we’ve changed the world at that point, so.

Bernardo Carreira:
Exactly.

Matt Baum:
That’s not something to you know… So, have any of the big guys… Have you heard from anyone, like any major shoe producers that are looking into doing something like this?

Bernardo Carreira:
We got a few [inaudible 00:19:29]… And, to be honest, I look at it the same way. I doubt that they will make a lot of hemp shoes. But, if they start making hemp shoes, I will take it as a compliment. But, I saw some big companies buying our shoes already.

Matt Baum:
Oh, yeah.

Bernardo Carreira:
Because…

Matt Baum:
They want to check them out.

Bernardo Carreira:
Because, they buy the shoes with business email.

Matt Baum:
Oh. Come on, guys. They’re like ship to… We like Rick Shipment from Rick@nike.com. [inaudible 00:20:06].

Bernardo Carreira:
Exactly.

Matt Baum:
Come on man, you got to be smarter than that.

Bernardo Carreira:
To be honest, I see it. And to be honest, it’s a compliment. I showed the team and say, “Hey guys, competition is buying our shoes.” But in the same way, we’re like, “It’s not really competition for me.” We’re doing something unique. We are doing something that we identify ourselves with. And to be honest, if everyone’s starts making hemp shoes, and they’re good for the environment, then we just…

Matt Baum:
Again.

Bernardo Carreira:
We’re moving to making more eco-friendly stuff, so that they can copy this again.

Matt Baum:
Mark that a win. Definitely. How many people out there right now are wearing your shoes? How many have you shipped so far? Roughly, you don’t have to give me a give me an exact number, but like roughly.

Bernardo Carreira:
Okay. A few thousand, cannot say for sure. Four, or 5,000.

Matt Baum:
So, this is still very new. This is like a small club of people around the world, that are checking these out [crosstalk 00:21:05].

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. Exactly.

Matt Baum:
But, what are they saying? Those who have bought them, like what’s the response to them?

Bernardo Carreira:
I don’t want to sound biased, because I will obviously say that they love them.

Matt Baum:
Right.

Bernardo Carreira:
I mean…

Matt Baum:
I didn’t think you [inaudible 00:21:20], they hate him. Oh God, it’s been a failure.

Bernardo Carreira:
Well, you can always check our reviews on the Trustpilot. Those, we cannot control.

Matt Baum:
Trustpilot, really good, definitely.

Bernardo Carreira:
People go there, and they post the reviews. And [inaudible 00:21:36] go back, I completely like [inaudible 00:21:39]. Yeah. But, so some reviews and some feedback from people that… Mostly, they all like the shoes. Some of them gave comments like, “Oh, I wish my shoe was lighter.” “Oh, I wish my shoe was…” And, this is something that we take really serious. And, that’s why we improve to, bring this new algae sole. This new [inaudible 00:22:03] is super light. Because okay, this guy is right, and he gave the… Like a few people said, “I wish the shoe was a bit lighter. And we’re Like, “They are right, we need to improve it.” And then, we make it super light.

Matt Baum:
That’s where the new soles came in. Yeah.

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah.

The future of 8000Kicks shoes

Matt Baum:
So, [crosstalk 00:22:19] what was the first soul made of? Was that the recycled plastic, or recycled rubber, you said?

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. Recycled rubber. So, we changed the entire structure. And basically, we use the algae, which makes it super light. And, that was a big innovation for us, but that’s basically what happened. People complaining that it was, “Okay, this shoes could be lighter.” And we’re like, “Okay, how can we do this?” We had this company that does algae bloom foam. Then we decided, “Let’s do it.” And, that’s how it started.

Matt Baum:
So, what’s the plan?

Bernardo Carreira:
The other things, were the small things, people said that, “The cork rubber was very good, very interesting, but they wish it was a little bit more cushioning.” Which to be honest, I did not really expect. But, after reasoning with the customers, I understood that it didn’t have the feel that they wanted. So, we were like, “How can we improve this?” So, I mean, there’s no such thing as a perfect shoe. There’s always stuff to improve.

Matt Baum:
Of course.

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. And, that’s how we can improve the shoe to be a super shoe. We always like, this small detail, this small detail. And, that’s how it goes.

Matt Baum:
And, you answering the emails, you’re on the front line; so you are carrying this stuff direct. It’s not like someone is coming to you with a marker [inaudible 00:00:23:46], “Sir, 14.2 percent of the respondents said, that the shoe needs to be a little bit lighter.”

Matt Baum:
You’re just getting emails directly from customers like, “Hey man, I wish the shoe was a little lighter.” And, that kicks in a new idea to have like, “All right, how do we do that? And, it [inaudible 00:24:00]. I got to check out this algae foam. That sounds amazing. What’s next for you?

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah, you getting them shipped to your place right now.

Matt Baum:
Yeah, I know. I’m super excited. So, what’s next for you guys? Post COVID, you’re coming back to the States, and then you take over the U.S. Is that the plan? We’re all wearing hemp shoes.

Bernardo Carreira:
[inaudible 00:24:18] COVID, we’re going to make a mandatory for every farmer.

Matt Baum:
I love it.

Bernardo Carreira:
No. So, we’re still really small, right. So the idea is, we making sure that we’re bringing new colors, making sure that people like what we doing. Growing, [inaudible 00:24:40] very strong foundation. And, we have a lot of attention already, but we don’t want to outgrow what is sustainable.

Matt Baum:
Right.

Bernardo Carreira:
We want to make sure, that we have full control of what we make. And for that reason, the idea is to go to the U.S., so that we can follow up a little bit more on this process, be there with our customers, do a few more events, where we actually are in-person with the customers. Which is kind of complicated right now, because of the COVID. But, we wish we would be doing that right now.

Bernardo Carreira:
And, bring new colors. What colors do customers want? How do they feel about walking with this shoes. Do they want more like summer stuff, more like winter stuff. Of course now, it’s winter, and then summer coming, but that’s easy to say. But, what exactly is that you want for summer. But, we don’t want to make just another summer shoe, or another winter shoe; it has to be amazing. Right. Otherwise, we just making another pair of, I don’t know, sandals, or another pair of boots. I mean, [crosstalk 00:25:57].

Matt Baum:
But, these are blue. And, these are pink.

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. Exactly. It has to be really high quality. Our idea is like, small amount of products, but amazing. Amazing ones. [crosstalk 00:26:15] I’m really excited for you to try them, because really, you’ve [crosstalk 00:26:17] for a long time.

Matt Baum:
I’m super excited. So, the idea is to scale up responsibly, basically. And, not outgrow the quality that you’re trying to maintain now, while also pushing the product forward.

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah, exactly.

8000Kicks = 8000 B.C.

Matt Baum:
That’s amazing, man. So 8000Kicks, where’s the name come from?

Bernardo Carreira:
Okay. That’s a good question. A lot of people ask that. It actually comes from 8000 BC. That’s when hemp originated in Asia, in Taiwan, in China. Basically, hemp started back then. And we said, “Let’s honor the past, and let’s use a funky number, 8000 Kicks.”

Matt Baum:
That’s great.

Bernardo Carreira:
That’s how we came up with it.

Matt Baum:
I love it. Bernardo, can’t wait for you to get back to the States. I mean, I’m sorry you’re trapped there, but I got to get one of those hats too. I’m going to get on your site, and go order one of those hats. I’m guessing, that’s all hemp as well.

Bernardo Carreira:
The hats. Oh, these hats.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. The hat you’re wearing, yes.

Bernardo Carreira:
These ones are not for sale yet. We are developing them, but not for sale yet. And actually, we have a few ideas, funky ideas, that we want to launch. But, the hats are one of them.

Matt Baum:
Cool.

Bernardo Carreira:
But, not yet. Not yet.

Matt Baum:
Fair enough.

Bernardo Carreira:
Not right now, only the masks.

Matt Baum:
So, final question. If I’m Adidas or I’m Nike, and I come to you tomorrow; and I go, “Bernardo, this is an idea, man, how much you want?” “I’ll write you a cheque right now.” Are you selling, or are you holding onto it?

Bernardo Carreira:
To be honest, not really selling. I think if it was for the money, there will be easier ways to make money.

Matt Baum:
Absolutely.

Bernardo Carreira:
I will go to investment banking, or something like that.

Matt Baum:
Sure.

Bernardo Carreira:
But, there’s something that the big brands have, that I don’t have, and that is the access to a lot of resources, and the access to a lot of big networks. And so, although we were really committed to do amazing stuff, and we have a lot of energy and motivation; a lot of times it takes us a lot of effort to get… So, we mentioned like, these guys have big Ferrari’s, then they can have really big machines. Then basically, we don’t have big machines, so we have to run all night to catch up with it.

Matt Baum:
Right, exactly.

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. So the thing is, we are really committed to quality, and by teaming up with people that have a lot of experience, that would be very good for us. So, we want to scale up the team to bring more quality. But, these big companies have a lot of resources, that can help us drive our mission. So it really, it shouldn’t be a question of money. It should be a question of, what do they bring to the table that can help us bring this project further.

Matt Baum:
That’s awesome. That’s completely awesome. So for now, if I want to buy a pair of shoes, I have to go to 8000kicks.com.

Bernardo Carreira:
Exactly.

Matt Baum:
Awesome. Thanks so much.

Bernardo Carreira:
And, you buy one each color.

Matt Baum:
Yeah, I buy one each color. Deal.

Bernardo Carreira:
We’re coming up with new color’s. And, if you want to suggest any new color, feel free to reach out on Instagram, or Facebook, or just via email. Because, many times I’m there with my colleagues answering the emails.

Matt Baum:
Cool.

Bernardo Carreira:
So, you’ll probably get a message directly from me, asking you more questions, “Hey, what color?”

Matt Baum:
It sounds like you’ve got a great product, and it sounds like people are excited. I’m super excited for this. Shoes are one of those things, that I don’t think we think about enough, when we buy them. Because, they do have so much plastic, and there’s a bunch of cloth on them. And, when you get done with those shoes, they just get thrown away into a landfill. Yours, since they’re hemp and this algae plastic, do they break down better eventually, when I’m done with them? And, I’ve worn them for five or 10 years, when I’m done with them. Will they be around, as long as my Nike shoes?

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah, definitely not. They are not. However, I have to be a 100 percent transparent. The shoes are not a 100 percent natural. This is a fact, they are like 95 percent natural. Then we had to add, for instance, our membrane, it’s synthetic, so this is how we guarantee that it’s waterproof. But to be honest, we don’t mind adding that five percent extra of synthetic material to improve the features, and to make sure the product is extra good.

Matt Baum:
Yeah.

Bernardo Carreira:
And also, in many cases that also helps us reduce the CO2 footprint, which for us, is a big number.

Matt Baum:
Definitely.

Bernardo Carreira:
That’s one of our biggest KPIs. And right now, we have 4.1 kilo of CO2, kilo per shoe. And, I mean, that is a really low number. Most shoes consume 30 kilos of CO2 per production. By adding this small synthetic, we reduce a lot, the CO2 that goes out; and we increase a lot, the features of the shoes. And basically, what that does is, instead of the shoes lasting six months, they last one year, two years. So, it’s the five percent that we will rather not replace by natural materials, that do not perform as well.

Matt Baum:
But, the point being like 95 percent natural, is 95 percent more than just about every other shoe on the market. So, I’m not [crosstalk 00:32:24]…

Bernardo Carreira:
Exactly.

Matt Baum:
Like, that sounds pretty good to me, so.

Bernardo Carreira:
Yeah. I mean, full transparency on our side.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. No, and that’s awesome. I mean, a lot of people wouldn’t even bring that up. I’m glad you did. But, I think it’s amazing. I’m excited to get these. I think you guys have, what looks like a really cool product. And as I know, there’s others on the market, but you’ve already sent some to some people at Ministry of Hemp, and they’re like, “I love them, I think they’re amazing.” So, I’m super excited, man. And, I look forward to…

Final thoughts from Matt

Matt Baum:
I finally got my pair of, black with black sole 8000Kick hemp shoes this week, which is cool. Because, I can wear them with all my metal T-shirts, and stuff. And I got to say, I love them. They’re lightweight. They’re super comfortable. They’re a fantastic shoe. And, I feel good owning them, too. If you want to check out 8000Kicks, I will have a link to their website in the notes, for this episode.

Matt Baum:
Thanks for joining me, again for another episode of the Ministry of Hemp Podcast. Next time on the show, I’m going to be talking to some local guys right here in Nebraska, where I’m from Ministry of Hemp is technically out of Austin, Texas, where Kit our editor in chief, and Drew, our brand managers live. But right here in Nebraska, there are some people doing some really cool stuff with hemp. So, I’m excited to talk to them. If you need more Ministry of Hemp in your life before that, head over to our site, ministryofhemp.com, and check out some really good articles we have up right now. We have an update on the side effects of CBD oil, and it talks all about whether or not CBD is safe. We also have a really interesting article about, can you overdose on CBD, if you take too much? Spoiler alert, No. But, it’s a good read. And if anybody could, it would be me, because I have a ton of it, and I’m always trying different CBD stuff for this show.

Matt Baum:
Speaking of the show, if you like what you hear, give us a rating, give us a review. It really does help, for us to get this information to people that are looking for it. And, it raises us in the search algorithms as well. And, if you really want to help us out, head to Patreon/ministryofhemp, and become a Ministry of Hemp insider. We just put up a podcast extra, today; me talking to Evan Nison from NORML. You may remember him, from last week’s episode. We talk about his San Francisco based cannabis tour guide company, that takes people on tours of local cannabis dispensaries, and farms. It’s a really cool little discussion.

Matt Baum:
And it’s our way of saying, thank you to you guys for supporting us on Patreon. You can find a link to our Patreon, in our show notes. And, speaking of the show notes, here at the Ministry of Hemp, we believe that a more accessible world is better for everyone. So, we include a full written transcript of this episode in the show notes, over at ministryofhemp.com. All right, that’s it. I got to get out of here. Thank you so much for joining me, again. And, I like to end the show the same way, every time. Remember to take of yourself. Remember to take care of others. And, make good decisions, will you? This is Matt Baum, with the Ministry of Hemp. Signing off.

The post Hemp Shoes Are Part Of A More Sustainable Future, With 8000Kicks appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.

First, our host Matt begins the Ministry of Hemp podcast with a word about our new Best CBD Pre-Rolls 2020 article. It’s full of great info pertaining to pre-rolled CBD cigarettes and hemp joints, which a lot of you have been asking about lately.

In the main conversation, Matt talks with Jordan Hinshaw, CEO of GreenTek Packaging. GreenTek’s misson is to replace everyday plastics with eco-friendly hemp plastic. The two talk about the benefits of not just hemp plastics but pairing them with other bioplastics too. They compare hemp and regular plastic in both strength, applications, and sustainability. Plus they discuss Greentek’s latest venture, Hemptensils which they hope to become a responsible replacement for single-use plastic silverware.

About Jordan Hinshaw & GreenTek Packaging

The Son of Major Leaguer George Hinshaw and a bilingual Los Angeles teacher/principal, Jordan developed a unique perspective on American Exceptionalism in the diverse city of Long Beach, CA. Having spent the early part of his twenties living and working in 20 states, Mexico, Canada, and briefly in Japan, he grew a clear understanding of the impact of climate change and plastic waste on the environment.

Idolizing the work of William H. Deming, Jordan’s belief in the future strength of the American economy being based on domestic manufacturing and renewable resources has guided his work towards innovations in industrial hemp. Following stints with both manufacturing and fulfillment companies whose supply chains were entrenched overseas, Jordan, along with a team of industry resources engineers andadvisors, established GreenTek in 2019. Now, they work to grow its offerings of eco-friendly packaging and housewares using domestic hemp and other plant feedstocks.

Brought to you by Canvas 1839

This episode is brought to you with help from our partners at Canvas 1839. This Austin, TX brand creates high quality CBD oil and CBD topicals using Colorado-grown, full-spectrum hemp extract. They develop their great products with the help of their chief science officer, Dr. Kyle Hammerick, a Stanford graduate.

We’re big fans of Canvas 1839 products and think you should try them too. And right now you can get 15% off your order just for being a listener to this show. Head to canvasrelief.com and use the code friend15 and you get 15% off your purchase. Thanks again, Canvas, for making this episode possible.

You’ve got hemp questions? We’ve got hemp answers!

Send us your hemp questions and you might hear them answered on one of our Hemp Q&A episodes. Send your written questions to us on Twitter, Facebook, matt@ministryofhemp.com, or call us and leave a message at 402-819-6417. Keep in mind, this phone number is for hemp questions only and any other inquiries for the Ministry of Hemp should be sent to info@ministryofhemp.com

Subscribe to our show!

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Bioplastics and hemp utensils: Complete episode transcript

Below you’ll find the complete transcript of episode 55 of the Ministry of Hemp podcast, “CBD Testing & Stopping Bad CBD Oil”:

Matt Baum:
I’m Matt Baum, and this is the Ministry of Hemp Podcast brought to you by Ministryofhemp.com, America’s leading advocate for hemp and hemp education.

Matt Baum:
(singing)

Matt Baum:
Today on the show, we’re going to talk about hemp plastics. What are we really talking about, when we talk about hemp plastic? Let’s be honest, we’re talking about garbage, because plastic makes up not only the bulk of our garbage that we throw away, but it also sticks around longer than just about anything we throw away. Today on the show, I’m going to talk to a guy named Jordan Hinshaw. He’s the CEO of GreenTek Plastics. He is working on incorporating hemp plastic, into some very simple every day things that we use, single use plastics like containers and utensils. It’s an awesome conversation. This is the kind of guy that’s really going to change things, and I’m so excited for you to hear from him.

Matt Baum:
But before we get into that, I want to let you know that, we are once again partnered with Canvas 1839. They’re centered out of Austin, Texas they’re buddies of ours, and they are a fantastic CBD brand. You guys are constantly hitting us up and asking us, “Who can I trust? Who should I buy from?” Canvas is one of those companies that is doing it right, and we are super proud to partner with them. Later on the show, I’m going to tell you how you can get 15% off your first order from Canvasrelief.com. Huge thanks to canvas for partnering with us.

Ministry of Hemp picks the best CBD pre-rolls

Matt Baum:
Before we get into the interview real quick, a lot of people have been contacting both the site and me, asking about pre-rolls, about smokable hemp. We’ve got a fantastic article up at Ministryofhemp.com right now. It’s all about the companies that are doing it right, from growing their hemp, to drying it, to putting it into their pre-roll, so you know exactly what you’re getting, and exactly what it’s supposed to be doing. Now, we’re not going to tell you that smoking is healthier. There’s dangers to smoking. Yes. If you’re inhaling smoke, you’re doing something that is not great for your lungs. But, if you’re doing it in limited amounts, to help with pain, appetite, anxiety, things that CBD really can help, there are very quick benefits to smoking hemp.

Matt Baum:
But, if you are going to smoke him, of course, we want you to do it with caution and in moderation. I’ve linked this article in the show notes for this episode. I’ve tried a few myself and I have to say, I really like smokable hemp, but again, only in moderation.

Meet Jordan Hinshaw

Matt Baum:
My conversation today is with Jordan Hinshaw. He’s the CEO of GreenTek Packaging, and Jordan is awesome. [inaudible 00:02:48] here he came up in the cannabis industry, and saw a real chance for hemp to become a plastic substitute, that could literally change the world. GreenTek is a manufacturing company out of the South Bay in Long Beach. They emphasize community improvement and sustainable economics. You’re going to hear him talk about responsibility before profit. I cannot stress how important and cool their mission is. This is my conversation with Jordan Hinshaw of GreenTek Packaging.

Matt Baum:
Jordan, before we get into it, why don’t you tell me what makes a guy like you decide, “Hey, I want to open a company that not only is dealing with hemp in a time where it’s still pretty wild west and scary, but I want to take on the plastics company, and show people that we can make the same stuff out of hemp.” Where did this come from? How does this start?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Yeah, no. It was kind of organic, no pun intended. The idea was floating around in Long Beach and in the cannabis space for some time, that you have all this raw material that’s not being used, and new advances in technology. So, I just wanted to be part of the forefront of that push, and saw it as purpose over profits. Coming out of my previous career, where I was well-paid for what I was doing and enjoyed it, but just didn’t feel like I was making an impact in a larger industrial way.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Luckily, I had the background of in engineering. I was at Cal Poly alumni, where I studied mechanical engineering, and Cal State, East Bay alumni, where I was doing industrial engineering studies in the off seasons on their quarter system, before that evaporated. So, I just felt like it was a next point for my skillsets and my interests.

Matt Baum:
So, what drew you specifically to the cannabis? Were you working in that? Cannabis obviously has been legal in California for quite a while, or did you just notice like, “Hey, there’s a real business here and a real opportunity that people aren’t seizing on.” Was it just that simple?

Jordan Hinshaw:
A bit of both. So, I’ve been a well integrated. Like you said, California has been legal for some time in the cannabis space. I myself, I’m a member of the Long Beach Collective Association, as is our company, and I had done some work with… I’ve worked through the supply chain of cannabis a bit, more on the logistics side, fulfillment, even down to being able to go to the fields and see how they operate, and do that side of the business since I was… I’m 30 now, so it’s about a decade ago when that started.

Matt Baum:
Wow.

Jordan Hinshaw:
It was just kind of the tinglings of someone who’s interested in that space, and understands and respects that it’s more than just psychoactives and good times. There’s actual industry and innovation going on.

Introducing GreenTek Packaging

Matt Baum:
Tell me about GreenTek. How did it start? Right now, you’re moving into the utensils, which is how I found you. I saw a press release and I was like, “This is freaking amazing and exactly the kind of stuff we need to be doing with hemp.” How did GreenTek get started? What was the first products?

Jordan Hinshaw:
The first products were all based on packaging for the cannabis industry. We were prototyping a ton of containers that had a balance of like rigid aspects with the base, and some elastomers that we were going to make them airtight, and try to offer something that was industrially compostable and made from plant based matter. We were courting some rather large pre-roll companies, like flower companies that were doing units at 50,000 or 100,000 per month, where we would justify some custom materials that were a bit over in the luxury range of pricing, but were environmentally much more beneficial.

Matt Baum:
Yeah, you’re making a statement, definitely. If you’re going to grow this stuff right, and you’re going to talk about how important it is to farm it, and do it the right way, you may as well package it the right way too, right?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Exactly. That’s all feedback from the consumer base. That’s all based on how people in general are moving in that direction. The companies don’t want to be too far behind it, so they’re trying to match solutions with revenue.

The challenges of developing hemp bioplastics

Matt Baum:
So, what was the most difficult part? Like when you guys started this and you decided, “Okay, we want to move into hemp plastics and whatnot,” we call it hemp plastics, but there’s no petroleum in it. What was the hardest part in developing that kind of stuff, and also getting it to the consumer, who’s going to buy it and package their stuff? When I say the consumer, the companies. Was it difficult to sell them on the idea that like, “Hey, this is going to be a little more expensive, but look, it does the same job. Not just that, you can throw this away and not feel guilty about it.” Was that all it took to sell them on it?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Right. So yeah, if you were able to make it as concise and well put as you did, absolutely. It’s a massive undertaking.

Matt Baum:
If you guys are hiring, let me know. This sounds cool.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Very well done, right? It was a massive undertaking, and a supply chain management challenge where, you got new infrastructures, new machinery that’s being placed around the nation, farmers that are just getting into their swing of things in terms of production and specifics of how it comes out. So, it’s working with those groups collectively, understanding our own capabilities, to be able to offer pricing that is measurable to the value add in their operations.

Matt Baum:
Right, right.

Jordan Hinshaw:
We’ve had some swings and misses for sure. We’ve had some really big players that came to us and asked us to work with them, and then kind of got an idea where the pricing was, and was like, “Well, we’re going to hold off a little bit longer.” But, we’ve also had a lot of smaller businesses that are much closer to their consumer, that are much more quick to say, “We understand the intrinsic value of what you’re doing here,” because the externalities of us continuing to make plastics are outweighing the small pennies that we’re saving by using them.

Why bioplastics are more expensive

Matt Baum:
Absolutely. Let me ask you, when you said you had like some bigger companies that came in, and they looked at the pricing, and obviously they’re going off bottom line in a case like that, is it just a matter of catching up technology-wise to bring that price down? Or, is it a matter of more people growing hemp? Is it a matter of more processing, better processing? What do you think pushes that price point down to a point where you can say something like, “Hey McDonald’s or Hey, Walmart…” Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of health food stores and the whole foods and whatnot, but they’re not going to change the world at the price point they’re selling food at. We’re going to change the world by getting this stuff in frigging Walmart, you know?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Right.

Matt Baum:
What do you see as the biggest hurdle to getting that price down? What do you think?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Right. I think it’s mainly the second by comparison of those aspects. Scale really is a huge thing, and you have to walk that up. It’s speculative to guess that everything is going to go perfectly well when you go from selling 100,000 units to 100 million units.

Matt Baum:
Right.

Jordan Hinshaw:
So, there’s a brick by brick aspect of building the industry, where you want traction to grow in an organic manner, to a point where you can be confident to say, “Hey, look McDonald’s, we have this proven process here. Delivering at this scale would allow us to be price competitive within 10 or 20%,” and have them say, “Yeah, yeah, we see the work you’ve done. We believe in that enough to invest, and make that switch over, without having to deal with all of kinks and issues that any expanding business would deal with.”

Matt Baum:
Sure.

Jordan Hinshaw:
On the other side, yes, supplies. There’s actually a glut of a material right now. I think last year, industrial hemp acreage increased to about 125,000 acres in the nation, up from the tens of thousands a few years back. 60% plus of that didn’t have scheduled offtake. So, you’ve got a lot of material out there, that’s going to actually push down the price the more of it you use. But, you just need to be organized supply chain wise, where your processing is within range of where you’re doing it, and you’re able to coordinate all the pricing, so that you can guarantee that, “Hey McDonald’s, you will have it, as we say it will be,” for example.

Creating Hemptensils hemp utensils

Matt Baum:
Let me ask you, as far as… I was reading the press cue you guys have coming out, and it sounds like this utensil thing, people are pretty excited about this. I thought it was cool as hell. But, take me through it. We don’t have to do the hardcore science or anything, but take me through the process, like, the hemp comes in and it ends up as plastic. How does that work? That just sounds nuts.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Yeah, pretty cool stuff. Essentially, anytime you work with the stalks of the plant, the lignocellulose, you have an opportunity to extract the sugars from it, which build the starches. In that process, you’re creating the same polymers that are used in petroleum plastic. It’s when they make it from oil or in a large amount of cases, natural gas.

Matt Baum:
Literally the same polymers? Like no difference? That’s-

Jordan Hinshaw:
Similar. There are differences, depending on the formulation that you use. There’s mixes of sugarcane, of cornstarch, of different materials that have different properties, and they tend to… You tend to trade off between sturdiness or toughness versus flexibility, which has been a pretty big challenge for a lot of a lot of our products. Where, the more hemp fiber you have in it, the stronger and lighter weight it is by density, but oftentimes it doesn’t have that type of like pop-pop capability that people are often used to.

Matt Baum:
Basically, you’re not using the leaves, you’re using the stems, and you’re de-coordinating them, if you will.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Decorticating. Yes, that’s-

Matt Baum:
Decorticating, got it.

Jordan Hinshaw:
… That’s a word if you type into Word, it will always have a little red squiggly underneath it.

Matt Baum:
Yeah, yeah. I even practiced saying it, and I still got it wrong. That’s great. But from that point, it comes in as like little pellets basically, that you’re turning it into? Then those pellets, are you literally melting them into forms from there?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Right. That’s the process, whether by injection or extrusion, in some cases some compression molding and thermoforming, to heat it to 190 degrees, 210, 240, and press it into an extremely heavy tooling. In some cases, 1400 pound steel item that is water cooled around it, so that once it goes in, it’s able to pop out as the perfect shape of what you made it, designed to be.

Matt Baum:
Just like you would with plastic basically, but no petroleum.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Yeah, yeah, a very similar process. Absolutely. The only difference obviously is in processing temperatures, and cycle times, and aspects that have to do with how the material wears on the tooling. So, it’s not as transferable, where in a lot of cases, the material dictates how you actually build the tooling. Ours are unique to these types of materials.

Comparing hemp bioplastic and petro-plastic

Matt Baum:
Let me ask you differences between this hemp plastic and petroleum plastic. Is it a matter of like strength or transparency? What are the major differences? Are there pros, cons? Let’s just take the ecology side out of it for a minute, and just discuss raw pros and cons of stability, what it looks like, stuff like that.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Right. So, the material we’ve been working with has a really natural color to it, that natural hemp brown. So, transparent items have not been… We’ve not been able to achieve that aspect. But, you can always add color additives that are nontoxic, if you so choose, to make it black or brown or blue, whatever other colors that are optional.

Matt Baum:
Sure. So, clear is not really an option yet.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Not in hemp, no. Obviously, the biomass itself has that natural tinge, and so you’d be hard pressed to try to make that-

Matt Baum:
It’s green, right? What are you going to do?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Yeah, exactly. But luckily, it’s a nice hazelnut color, hazelnut hemp.

Matt Baum:
Cool.

Jordan Hinshaw:
So, it’s kind of got a nice visual aesthetic to it. So, we’re not too ashamed of that.

A message from Canvas 1839

Matt Baum:
Let’s take a quick break, to talk about our partner this week, Canvas 1839, centered out of Austin, Texas, which also happens to be the de facto home of Ministry of Hemp, because Kit lives there. Canvas strives to make products with the highest efficacy based on proprietary science, with the help of their Chief Science Officer and Stanford grad. Dr. Kyle Hammerick’s pioneering work in nanoscale biology. Canvas currently offers a relief oil that is crafted with Colorado grown, full spectrum hemp extract, grown under organic practices to support your wellbeing in mind and body.

Matt Baum:
Each one ounce bottle contains 300 milligrams of CBD, which is 10 milligrams per dropper. Now, they sent me a bottle and I have to say, normally, 10 milligrams of CBD isn’t enough for me, but I’ve really been enjoying it. I’ve been taking the relief oil in the mornings with my coffee, and I feel like it brings me in for a soft landing, as I get to work. I’m focused and I’m awake, but the Canvas relief oil keeps me from my usual ADD morning coffee rush. It’s actually helped with some of the aches and pains that I’ve been dealing with, since I started boxing training again.

Matt Baum:
They also offer a luxurious relief cream that is specifically formulated for optimal transdermal penetration and absorption, which means, when you rub it on your skin, it actually goes into your skin. It leaves a very clean skin field with no residue whatsoever. There’s 500 milligrams of CBD in each two jar. My wife, who’s an aerobics instructor and owns a gym has been using it, and she loves it. It’s become a part of her post-workout shower regime. Canvas is a company that is just doing it right. That’s why we’re proud to partner with them. They know their farmers, they have third party lab results readily available. Right now, you can get 15% off your order, just for being a listener to this show. Head to Canvasrelief.com and use the code Friend15, and you get 15% off your purchase.

Matt Baum:
I would recommend their starter pack. That features the two products they sent me, the relief oil and the relief cream, and both are fantastic. That’s Friend15, all one word. Of course, I will have a link to Canvasrelief.com in the show notes, for this episode. Now, back to the show.

Bioplastics vs. fossil fuels

Jordan Hinshaw:
Besides that, obviously the heat implications, depending on product thickness, it’s designed to allow heat and bacteria to eat away at it.

Matt Baum:
Right.

Jordan Hinshaw:
So, while it holds up on a shelf just fine for years, if you do apply it to higher pressure, a higher heat environment, it’s going to start to soften in a way that actually no other plastic really does. We did some testing on some basic corn plastics, and they tend to break at a certain temperature change.

Matt Baum:
They get real brittle, right?

Jordan Hinshaw:
[crosstalk 00:19:16] shaped. Yeah, brittle. Whereas the hemp plastic, actually, it doesn’t get brittle, it gets really elastic. It’s really flexible.

Matt Baum:
Really?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Yeah. So, we were testing it out, we dumped it in boiling waters for a period of time. All we had to do was dip it back in cold water and it solidified right back into it’s shape, and we were able to bang it against the table.

Matt Baum:
That’s cool.

Jordan Hinshaw:
It was really interesting.

Matt Baum:
That’s cool. Do you think that’s a difference in sugar content of the corn versus the hemp basically?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Yeah. The content of the hemp itself, the nature of fibers, just their resilience lends towards that more flexibility under pressure, rather than just snapping overall.

Matt Baum:
Sure. So, what about raw strength of the product itself? How does that compare to like plastic? Is it stronger, the same, not quite as strong? What are we talking?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Rank well, as it’s stronger. There’s evidence there since the ’40s, where they were doing a Ford, if you’ve ever heard of that experiment, he was putting it in his-

Matt Baum:
Yeah, his car and stuff, right?

Jordan Hinshaw:
In the walls of his car, and taking hammers to it. That’s actually still been going on. I believe Mercedes, if not BMW, has a line of doors, their lining that’s more than carbon fiber, it’s hemp fiber.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. I just interviewed those guys actually a couple of weeks ago.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Very nice. Essentially, strength is never a trade off. You’re actually increasing your density. So, compared to most of the exact same weight, you’re going to have a stronger product for certain. The main differences are more chemical based where, there’s a lot of compatiblizers, additives and such that they add, that often have these toxins and stuff. Without getting too much into it, that can affect temperature and barrier properties, where they’re able to resist more caustic environments.

Matt Baum:
Right, right.

Jordan Hinshaw:
These are for your lunch at the break room.

Matt Baum:
Right. This is stuff that you want to disappear when you throw it away. You don’t want it to stick around forever.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Exactly.

Matt Baum:
Speaking of temperature, obviously plastic burns at a certain temperature, and it gives off all kinds of caustic fumes and stuff. What about hemp plastic? Does it burn the same? What happens when you apply fire to it?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Like you said, with little petroleum plastics, and it’s a great question, they do emit a lot of greenhouse gases as they burn up or break down. Carbon dioxide is released as a process of breaking down most… That’s when they say it’s carcinogenic, whatever. But, the hemp itself is more of a plant based matter. So, it has less of a negative impact in that way. But that being said, I have not actually set these on fire on purpose. So, I’ll have to add that to the list.

Matt Baum:
Would you be willing to burn something right now?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Right. You know what? That’s a great point.

The biodegradability of hemp plastic

Matt Baum:
I’m just curious. You start thinking about the ecology side, which I want to talk about next. Obviously, this stuff isn’t meant to be permanent. The idea is, this is temporary packaging for a cupcake, or your lunch, or something like that. What’s the difference if I take, let’s say a hemp packaging that is like a bag, for example, and I bury it next to a plastic bag in my backyard, or maybe I don’t even bury it, I sit them outside in my backyard. That plastic bag is going to be different thousands of years. How long… What happens to this hemp bag? How long does it take to break down?

Jordan Hinshaw:
In an aerobic environment like that, where it’s just sitting on top of the ground-

Matt Baum:
Right. Aerobic meaning air can get to it, right?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Sorry, say it again?

Matt Baum:
Aerobic meaning air can get to it more or less.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Right, right, right. You’re still going to be facing dozens of years, where the hemp plastic will hang around, because it’s actually more about the bacteria and the soil, like the environment itself, that’s allowing it to become a food source for, well I wouldn’t say fauna, but for the environment around it. So, what you’re really looking for is for it to be able to get back into the food chain, or the environment of soil or dirt or, and obviously ideally a compost. But, if it does get in those environments with ability to break down, then it could be as short as six months.

Matt Baum:
Wow.

Jordan Hinshaw:
How I see it evaporate.

Matt Baum:
That’s crazy.

Jordan Hinshaw:
The trade off there… Yeah, it’s pretty big. That’s why we’re really concentrated on pushing this element because, we understand that there’s a ton of politicians, a ton of legislation that is looking to solve all these problems of getting away from plastics, but that requires development of these composting centers, circular economies, and production of plant based materials.

Matt Baum:
So, I can compost. I compost on my backyard right now. I can compost this. If you send me something in hemp plastic, I can take it out, eat it, have a nice little meal and then throw the scraps, the vegetable scraps and the bag into my compost, and it’ll break down.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Yeah. About half of all the industrial composting centers, they do that on a pretty regular basis. I think it’s important that we try to move away from recycling.

Matt Baum:
Yeah.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Not move away from it necessarily, but look to materials that are going to provide some alternatives, just for the obvious reason that for one, a lot of recycling doesn’t get done. And then two, these plant based materials actually are not ideal for recycling. These are designed to be that type of degradable material. So, we’ve got some different experiments going on right now, we’ve got the B5511, which is an [inaudible 00:25:29] one, where they’re doing it in a backyard compost center. Then, there’s a few different methods that we’re testing out, so that we can really get a hard number on exactly how long they’ll take. But, that’s the idea. We really want to see higher quality compost going on, and we want to give them the feed stock that makes that possible.

The demand for hemp plastic utensils

Matt Baum:
And making a temporary product, like you said, that we don’t have to worry about. When you’re done with it, you don’t have to feel guilty. Speaking of which, let’s talk about the utensils. You guys have a big thing coming out right now. You just partnered with British Columbia. Can you name who it is yet, or is it still let’s keep it under wraps?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Well, we’ve already been under a distribution agreement with them, so it’s not necessarily a secret. It’s a company called Follow The Leader Distribution Company. They were really adamant about offering new eco-friendly solutions for packaging in that legal cannabis market there, and have since expanded. So, we were wanting to make sure that we sent them what they needed to that market there. Obviously, without overshooting, I’d say that the Canadians are in the advanced awareness state or acceptance state of the challenges of climate change, and are constantly looking to invest and find ways to bring those to fruition.

Jordan Hinshaw:
We’ve got a number of distributors that are spread out, and it just happens at two of them are in Canada, one there in BC, and a new one that we’re working on in Toronto. So, it’s no secret or anything, but it was encouraging to know that companies from all around the globe have been reaching out to us to see, “Hey, what can we do?” Which is just ironic in the sense that, we’re here in one of the top economies in the world, and these other countries are saying, “Hey, let’s-

Matt Baum:
Yeah, we like to make fun of Canada, like they’re our little brother, but they typically make us look pretty bad when it comes to stuff like climate science.

Jordan Hinshaw:
You got it.

Matt Baum:
It’s sad, unfortunately. Now, tell me about the utensils. How did you develop this? It’s like a fork, and a spork and a spoon, but they’re made of hemp plastic. It almost looks like they’re made out of wood, because of the color you said, that they have, and straws as well, hemp straws. Tell me they’re better than paper straws, because paper straws, they’re the worst.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Absolutely, yeah. The hemp straws are the big winner. We’re trying to get that prepared for a much larger scale launch because, we understand there’s just so many bars, restaurants, places of business, that are looking for an-

Matt Baum:
Yeah, absolutely, coffee shops.

Jordan Hinshaw:
… Alternative. In my mom’s generation, they were using paper straws, so it’s not a revolutionary thing to have them, and nobody liked them then either.

Matt Baum:
Yeah, they were garbage.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Yeah. The ideas, bamboo… I go to the store and cost-plus goods, and they’ve got bamboo straws that they’re selling for $1 a unit. We just knew that there’s got to be a middle ground there between the paper straws, which are doing a good thing and, and trying to reduce that. But using hemp as a feedstock, a material not neither a crop, a food crop nor forestry, rather than that paper. So, we’ve been experimenting with that for the last six weeks, and trying to get everything on point to break that the hemp straw out.

Matt Baum:
That’s so cool.

Jordan Hinshaw:
As far as the utensils, I’ve got a partner who helps with the CAD design, and try to engineer it based on material specs. Then, you get a large EDM machine out and start cutting steel. There’s steps and stages, but it’s been a fun process for sure.

Matt Baum:
My wife and I, we have those metal straws you can buy, and that’s great, you’re not throwing away plastic. But, you are introducing more metal straws, that are also made with gnarly chemicals, and they’re to be around forever. Whereas like the bamboo straw, like you said, great idea, too expensive. It’s just too expensive. Bamboo is an amazing plant, but it doesn’t grow as fast as hemp. It’s not as cheap and easy to grow. The same thing with reusable bags, and water bottles and stuff like that, it’s great, and we should be doing that stuff. But, we’re also creating an army of bags and water bottles, that will be around for the next 100,000 years, you know?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Yeah.

The future of GreenTek Packaging

Matt Baum:
So, what do you think the future is for you guys? Where do you go from here? What’s next?

Jordan Hinshaw:
It’s really interesting that you say that. I think with the reusable bags, there’s some stat. You’ve got to use them at least 28 times for them to even justify, because of the additional industrial waste or impact from making them. A lot of steel, the metals are no different in that way. That’s the idea is that, we believe that hemp itself is that carbon neutral solution. So, obviously as it grows, especially purpose grown for fiber, it absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than any other crop.

Matt Baum:
Absolutely.

Jordan Hinshaw:
So, what you’re finding is that, by growing it and then using it in manufacturing processes, which often in bioplastics already have lower emissions, you’re striking basically a sustainable supply chain. So, that’s kind of what we’re focused on. We’re trying to say, “Listen, it’s not just about the actual bioplastic result, and the fact that it’s better at the end of life. It’s about the entire chain, and how we’re using our domestic economy to its fullest, our own agricultural resources to develop products, innovate in those products, and become more independent as a nation, creating jobs, all that.” So, that’s our focus. We’ve got some different pilot programs for some technology to be developed, that’s going to make it as cost competitive as possible. But, we just understand that it’s an invigorating leg up for America.

Matt Baum:
Definitely, definitely.

Jordan Hinshaw:
So, that’s kind of where we see ourselves going.

Matt Baum:
How far away am I from hemp plastic bags in my grocery store? What am I talking 5 years, 15 years? What do you think?

Jordan Hinshaw:
Certainly within five years, I think you could see that. I know there are some groups that are already trying to develop some blown film options with that. Again, I think it’s going to be a matter of which companies buy-in, to lock in those kinds of purchase orders, and justify those supply chains first. But, I think within the next five years, you’re going to see some options that are those lines. If it took 10, then it was a policy problem. It was something to do with-

Matt Baum:
Absolutely.

Jordan Hinshaw:
… Our nation not invigorating and pushing for these types of things. But, there’s some cool stuff coming down the wire.

Matt Baum:
That’s cool to hear you say that though, because just to hear someone that’s in the industry say like, “Yeah, we can do this, and it is going to take a few years, but it’s not going to take 10 years. We’re learning, we’re kicking ass here, and it’s more a matter of don’t hold us back, than it is, we need to come up with brand new technology and the future we’re talking about.” I’m really happy to hear you say that. Let me ask you, what is the one plastic product that you are most excited about replacing with hemp plastics, that you think makes the biggest difference in the world?

Bioplastics and a more sustainable world

Jordan Hinshaw:
The biggest difference in the world? Well, let’s start from top down. If you look at 50% of all plastics that are made, those are usually single use. So, you’re really talking about these subscription food boxes, these take to go boxes and take out.

Matt Baum:
Yes.

Jordan Hinshaw:
You’re looking at things that are consumed in the pounds per day, per person, that really would impact the waste that’s gathering up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean right now. Some of the most common ones are our medical containers, pharmaceuticals and such, that really could be made from bioplastic materials, and are shipping out again all around the world. Being here in Long Beach, when I go to the beach, which I love my city, but it’s not one of the cleanest beaches by far.

Matt Baum:
Yeah, I’ve been there. I know what you mean.

Jordan Hinshaw:
That’s what you find.

Matt Baum:
Yeah. You find hypodermic needles and pill boxes and stuff, yeah, unfortunately.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Unfortunately. It doesn’t make me happy. But, those are some of the things that I think, if those were integrated from renewable resources, you’d have a real acknowledgeable impact in plastic waste.

Matt Baum:
Making a real change. You’re absolutely right. It’s that crap that we don’t think about, that we use every day, the container for your pills, the container your lunch came in, and stuff like that. How far off do you think we are from developing a clear plastic? Is that out of the question or is it just a matter of like, “Hey, we’ll figure it out. It’s coming.”

Jordan Hinshaw:
Again, it’s just material sources. When you’re talking about bioplastics in general, there’s a lot of options, from the material for tapioca all the way to sugarcane.

Matt Baum:
Right.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Now they’ve got some mycelium with mushrooms, and different options.

Matt Baum:
Yeah, that’s really cool too. They’re doing a lot of stuff there.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Yeah. We’ve been wanting to work with them for some time. They’re so overwhelmed with demand themselves, that you’ve got to go down there and knock on their door in-person.

Matt Baum:
I’m sure. That’s a good problem to have though. That means they’re busy. That means they’re kicking ass, hopefully.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Oh, yeah, yeah. It’s a product that people want, and it’s a classy product. It’s a really nice looking final product. But no, my point just being that, is that technology coming? Yes. Is it something in the immediate future? I don’t think so. If you choose to do it with some of the older materials, obviously bioplastics have been around for much longer than you’d imagine, when you don’t involve the hemp itself, you can find some clearer plastics. I think World Centric makes some clear bioplastics, although I’m not sure exactly what their formulation is, in terms of petrol, corn, whatever the balance may be.

Matt Baum:
But, you’re saying there’s no reason why there couldn’t be a combination of two things. You have your hemp plastic thing on the bottom, and then on top, maybe you have a mycelium plastic or some other type of bioplastic.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Exactly, yeah. Again, it’s just going from, right now, I think 1% of all plastics are made from bio renewable resources. So, it’s going from that to an increase in margin, increase in part of the market, where you’re going to find those type of combinations and solutions are more prevalent.

Matt Baum:
I ask because I was a chef for a long time, and working in kitchens, clear plastics, we literally go through tons of that stuff. You’ve got to be able to see what’s in it. So, when you’re in a hurry, you open it up and there’s a bag of label that and you can see it’s perfectly good, we’ll just grab it and go. When that bag is empty, you can’t reuse it because the health code won’t even let you. That’s against the law. You have to throw that crap away. Every time I did it, it just felt gross. Every time you wrap something in cling wrap, every time you threw something in a freezer bag, and you thought it out and then you just throw it away, it’s perfectly good, it’s going to be around for the next 50,000 years, but you can’t use it again. That’s the kind of stuff that’s another single use plastics, if we can start to replace that.

Jordan Hinshaw:
That’s what the overarching… GreenTek Packaging, obviously we focus on the division, and manufacturing these products, developing them, and providing them to the market, but in reality, GreenTek Planet is like, “Well, let’s combine those different resources.” Like for example, with the cellophanes, you’ve got some seaweed aspects there, that are moving towards making these thinner, more clear or see-through materials. Those are going to be the type of advances that cover a lot of the more unseen or low weight solutions for the bags and the options that you’re talking about. I think that that’s really where the pendulum is going to need to swing, to see those turtle suffocating items, not end up in the cycle. Again, I’m not sure to what level or what advancement specifically is going to turn that tide, but I know that we are a part of the group that’s pushing for that.

Jordan Hinshaw:
So, obviously it’s been a great opportunity to chat with you, and I’m thankful that we did connect. We’ve been doing a lot in terms of outreach, and understanding that while some of the larger companies are going to be challenges to knock the door of, it’s a grassroots movement. It’s the people behind this that really make this a viable objective. So, as far as plugging us, I’d say, come reach out if you guys are interested. If anybody has any custom projects or ideas that they want to see come to fruition, we’re available, Greentekplanet.com, and shop utensils, if people wanted to buy some of the products.

Jordan Hinshaw:
Our big push and our big reason for doing businesses is to impact disadvantaged communities. I came from one, the north side of Long Beach, and I understand that the waste ends up in these places, I understand that the jobs don’t go to these places, and that the community needs help. So, working with that, there’s a lot of community events, a lot of cleanups, a lot of food giveaways. We were doing some last week that… I just really want to be able to connect with the city on, and my team on. So, if there’s any questions, I’d definitely be open.

Matt Baum:
Cool. It sounds like you guys are doing it right. You’re buying American, you’re using American hemp, you’re repurposing waste hemp to do this stuff, you’re putting jobs in the community, this is the dream, right? This is what it’s all about. Let’s get-

Jordan Hinshaw:
Living the dream brother.

Final thoughts from Matt

Matt Baum:
Yeah, let’s get behind this people, come on. I want to send huge, thanks to Jordan for coming on the show. I will have links to GreenTek Packaging in the show notes for this episode, so you can check out all the cool things they’re doing over there. Like he said, if you have custom needs and you want to work with hemp plastic, they are the company to contact. Now, not to get too political here, but listen to what he was saying about American jobs, and working in the community, and using American hemp, and keeping it all here without any need for petroleum, and other gnarly chemicals that are not only bad for the environment, but we even outsource from other countries. I can’t think of anything more American than what is going on in the hemp movement right now, with companies like GreenTek Packaging. I’m just happy they’re out there.

Matt Baum:
(Singing)

Matt Baum:
That’s about it for this episode. But again, I want to thank Canvas CBD for partnering with us. Don’t forget, go to Canvasrelief.com, use the code Friend15, for 15% off your purchase, and let them know that you want to help them, and you think it’s awesome that they are supporting ministryofhemp.com. Speaking of supporting ministryofhemp.com, if you like what we’re doing here, and you think that hemp can probably change the world, head overdue Patreon\ministryofhemp, and become a Ministry of Hemp insider. Any amount you give makes you an insider, and it gives you access to early articles, podcast extras, and all kinds of other stuff. But more than that, it helps us get the good word of hemp out to other people.

Matt Baum:
Also, leave us a star rating, or a written review on wherever you’re listening to the podcast. This show is available anywhere you can download podcasts, and your reviews and star ratings and thumbs up or whatever they have, it really helps put us in front of other listeners. But, we don’t just do it for listeners either. Here at the Ministry of Hemp, we believe that an accessible world is a better world for everyone. So, we have a full written transcript for this episode in the show notes, over at ministryofhemp.com. Speaking of ministryofhemp.com, don’t forget to check out our latest article on the best CBD pre-rolls of 2020 that I mentioned in the beginning of the show.

Matt Baum:
If that’s not enough, you can always find us on all our social medias, at Ministryofhemp\ministryofhemp. We’re always kicking out great links to quality companies, quality news stories, and good old hemp education. All right. It’s time for me to get out of here, and I like to end the show the same way every week. I like to say, remember to take care of yourself, take care of others and make good decisions will you? This is Matt Baum with the Ministry of Hemp, signing off.

The post Bioplastics And Hemp Utensils With GreenTek Packaging appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.

A pioneering hemp company is helping to reduce cannabis waste and clean up our oceans.

Update December 16, 2020: Sana Packaging founders visited the Ministry of Hemp podcast to discuss how they started their hemp plastic packaging company, after forming Ron Vasak-Smith, CEO, and James Eichner

The cannabis industry produces massive amounts of single-use plastic. The packaging regulations instituted in many legal cannabis states make single-use plastic almost mandatory.

Sana Packaging is helping to change this pollution problem. In our new video, hemp advocate Cait Curley talks with Ron Basak-Smith, CEO of Sana Packaging. Basak-Smith explains how Sana started, and how they are pioneering innovative hemp and ocean plastic solutions for the cannabis industry.

Thanks to Cait Curley for filming this interview for Ministry of Hemp!

More about cannabis waste & hemp plastic

We previously interviewed Sana Packaging last year:

Here are some other articles about the immense potential of hemp plastic and hemp sustainability:

• Hemp Will Change The World
• Recycling Hemp & Cannabis Bio-Waste
• Why Isn’t Hemp Plastic Everywhere?

The post Reducing Cannabis Waste With Ocean & Hemp Plastic appeared first on Ministry of Hemp.