Paper

“From 75-90% of all paper in the world was made with cannabis hemp fibre until 1883: books, bibles, maps, paper money, stocks and bonds, newspapers etc.”. These include the Gutenberg and King James bible as well as works from Thomas Paine, Mark Twain, Alexander Dumas and Lewis Carroll. “The first draft of the US Declaration of Independence (June 28, 1776) was written on Dutch [hemp] paper.”. “U.S. government papers were written, by law, on hempen rag paper until the 1920s.”.

“It is generally believed by scholars that the early Chinese knowledge, or art, of hemp paper making (First Century A.D.–800 years before Islam discovered how, and 1,200 to 1,400 years before Europe) was one of the two chief reasons that Oriental knowledge and science were vastly superior to that of the West for 1,400 years. Thus, the art of long-lasting hemp papermaking allowed the Orientals’ accumulated knowledge to be passed on, built upon, investigated, refined, challenged and changed, for generation after generation (in other words, cumulative and comprehensive scholarship).”. Much of the fibre used to create this superb paper came from recycling worn out clothes, sheets, diapers, curtains and also discarded sails and ropes until the 1880s. “Hemp fibre or rag paper can be torn when wet but returns to its full strength when dry. Rag paper is stable for centuries, barring extreme conditions. It will almost never wear out.”

Jack Herer – The Emperor Wears No Clothes

Hemp can easily replace existing more toxic and wasteful products like tree pulp paper purely from the fact that it already did. The understanding of the process by which it was made and its superior quality and longevity even helps to attribute mankind’s ability to document and pass down information from generation to generation. This is a very big deal. Not only was this plant seemingly almost symbiotic with humanity (first cultivated agricultural crops) in terms of its use as a food, medicine, energy and fibre crop it could also be responsible for humanities ability to document its history.

This ‘rag paper’ which is mentioned in the above quotes was made from hemp fibre again the same part of the stalks we were referring to in the section on hemp as a textile. More often then not it wasn’t new fibre that was being used to make this kind of paper it was recycled from worn out textile products old sails, rope or clothing.

The fibre wasn’t the only part that could help in papermaking. The hurds, the inner part of the stalk, made up of cellulose, could also be used.

USDA bulletin 404

In 1916 a new process, invented by the USDA (United Stated Department of Agriculture), sought to create paper out of the “hurds” or “pulp” (the inner woody core that makes up to 77% of the stalks weight) then considered as a waste by-product of the fibre stripping industry. “If the hemp pulp paper process of 1916 were in use today, it could replace 40 to 70% of all pulp paper, including corrugated boxes, computer printout paper and paper bags. Pulp paper made from rags or machined from 60% to 100% hemp hurds is stronger and more flexible than paper made from wood pulp and makes a less expensive, more ecological paper–and a better one.”

Hemp paper is far superior to wood pulp paper in quality and is up to 80 times more recyclable (not to mention 1 acre of hemp produces the same amount of pulp as 4.1 acres of trees). In the production of paper from tree pulp, sulphur based acids and dioxins (that in turn create chlorine bleach) are used. These dioxins and chlorine, as run-off, add to soil degradation/water pollution and in the US this agricultural pollution accounts for more pollution than all municipal and industrial sources combined.

An interesting fact is that the Botanist in charge of fibre plant investigation who wrote Bulletin 404, Lyster Dewey, actually grew hemp on land which became the site where the Pentagon currently stands.

It is insane that every day products like printer paper, cardboard packaging and toilet paper are made from trees (with its associated pollutants) when we can produce all of these products from a crop that takes months not years to grow.

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