Why Plastic Pollution Is The Biggest Threat Of These Times

Imagine this: Every single minute, a garbage truck’s worth of plastic is dumped into the ocean. By the time you finish reading this sentence, millions of tiny plastic particles will have entered the water, consumed unknowingly by marine life—and eventually, by us.

Plastic doesn’t disappear. It breaks into pieces so small that it’s now in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and even the blood flowing through our veins.

Here’s what this crisis really looks like:

• 400 million tonnes of plastic waste are generated each year—that’s the weight of almost 2,700 cruise ships dumped annually.
• In the oceans, there are over 5 trillion plastic particles, weighing the same as 40,000 double-decker buses.
• Only 9% of plastic waste ever gets recycled. The rest fills our land, air, and oceans like a plague with no cure.
• Over 100,000 marine mammals and turtles die every year because of plastic pollution. That’s 11 animals killed every hour—just for living in their natural habitat.
• In 1950, the world produced 2 million tonnes of plastic, but by 2019 that number had increased to 460 million metric tons.

Yes, plastic pollution is overwhelming. But our webpage isn’t about the problem. We are far more excited by the solutions.

On this page, you’ll find answers to questions central to solving the ‘plastic problem’:

1. Why we can’t truly understand plastic without first understanding how it’s made?
2. Why petroleum-based plastic is so harmful to the planet.
3. Why it’s unrealistic to expect the world to completely give up the convenience and utility of plastic?
4. Why it makes much more sense to develop a ‘good’ plastic—one that neither harms the earth during production nor leaves a damaging footprint in its usage and disposal.
5. Why the answer to this search lies in a crop that was outlawed for much of the last century due to poorly informed legislation.
6. How the farming community of Hemp Foundation is emerging as an unexpected group of saviors, accelerating progress toward creating this ‘good’ plastic.
7. Why there is reason to be hopeful about the future and why everyone must support the miracle crop that could very well be humanity’s last hope.

Let’s begin at the beginning. 

We can’t talk about the problem of plastic till we understand how it’s made, and why that is such a vital piece of the puzzle we’re trying to solve. 

The link between petroleum and plastic

Plastic begins as a byproduct of refining petroleum. Here’s how: 

1. Crude oil refining

Crude oil is heated in a furnace and then sent to a distillation unit. Here it’s separated into lighter components called fractions. 

2. Naphtha extraction

Naphtha is one of the fractions that results from this process. It’s a group of carbon atoms that boils at 158°F (70°C). 

3. Thermal decomposition

Naphtha is thermally decomposed and separated into ethylene and propylene. These two molecules are the building blocks of plastic

4. Polymerization

Ethylene and propylene, now in their monomer forms, undergo polymerization (which is a process that bonds these small molecules into long chains called polymers) 

5. Plastic production

The polymers are then processed into plastic materials. The plastic is heated to soften it, then poured into a mould or shaped using other methods: 

The type of plastic formed depends on the polymer structure:

• PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) is used for beverage bottles.
• PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) is used for toys and blister wraps.
• Other combinations yield plastics for countless applications.

This chain of transformations explains how crude oil turns into the versatile plastics that dominate our daily lives.

But it’s also the most disastrous discover of the last few centuries. 

Why petroleum-based plastic is the worst invention of human history

Every time plastic is made, greenhouse gases are unleashed. In 2019 alone, the emissions from plastic production outpaced the entire global aviation industry. Imagine millions of planes taking off daily—that’s the carbon footprint of plastic.

Crude oil and natural gas, the raw materials for plastic, are finite. When we extract these, we rip through ecosystems and drain resources that took millions of years to form. 

Only 10% of all plastic waste is ever recycled. The rest piles up in landfills or floats in oceans

The plastic process poisons our air. Toxic fumes like dioxins and heavy metals leak out, seep into water and soil, and creep into the lungs of people and animals alike.

Petroleum-based plastic doesn’t disappear. Every bag, bottle, or wrapper lives on. It litters oceans, suffocates marine life, and clogs the planet’s arteries.

So, by now, we know that:

• There’s too much plastic.
• Plastic fuels the economy of convenience that runs the markets of the world. 
• The world won’t give up its convenience altogether. 
• Most of the plastic in use around the world comes from petroleum and is terrible because of the damage it does to the air, land, and human health. 
• To solve the problem, we need to decouple petroleum and plastic. 
• This means we need alternative raw materials from which we can make eco-friendly plastic. 

Now here’s something you might not know. 

Among these raw materials, the most promising one is hemp. 

The one crop that could clean the air, heal the soil, and replace plastic waste

What if plastic didn’t have to harm the planet? Imagine a world where packaging, car parts, and construction materials didn’t take hundreds of years to decompose. It’s possible, thanks to hemp.

Hemp plastic isn’t a far-fetched idea or a lab experiment waiting for funding. It’s here, it works, and in some ways, it’s better than traditional plastic. 

How is Hemp Plastic Made?

Hemp plastic isn’t new. Back in 1941, Henry Ford even created car parts from hemp. The process of making hemp plastic is straightforward and environmentally friendly.

1. The cellulose is separated from hemp fibres using chemical or mechanical methods.
2. The cellulose is polymerized to create bioplastics. Sometimes, it’s blended with other materials like PLA for additional applications.
3. The resulting bioplastic is moulded into shapes for packaging, construction materials, or automotive components.

As can be easily understood it is a clean, green manufacturing process far removed from petroleum refineries with its constant use of harmful, noxious chemicals. 

We just know that for a ‘green’ plastic to be truly adopted, it has to be usable by the industry. Now that we know this, let’s explore why hemp plastic is just ‘plastic, without the ugly consequences’. 

Here are some of its key uses:

• Hemp plastic can be used to create durable and biodegradable packaging for food products, reducing plastic pollution and waste. 
• It is ideal as packaging material for various consumer goods, from electronics to toys.
• It can be used to create lightweight and durable interior components like dashboards, door panels, and seat backs.
• It is highly efficient as insulation material improving energy efficiency in buildings.
• It can be used to create various building materials like wall panels, and roofing tiles.

But wait, can we honestly say that hemp is the only ‘green’ raw material from which plastic can be made?

There are other bio-based plastics out there:

• Polylactic Acid (PLA): Made from corn starch or sugarcane.
• Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA): A polyester produced by bacteria.
• Cellulose Acetate: Derived from plants and used in textiles.

While these options are promising, hemp plastic stands out as the most sustainable and widely accepted.

“One hectare of hemp could replace millions of barrels of oil”

Hemp plastic has several advantages that make it a suitable alternative to traditional petroleum-based plastics. These are the principal advantages of using hemp plastics:

Biodegradability

Hemp breaks down naturally and can be composted, while traditional plastics can take hundreds of years to decompose. Hemp plastic takes between a few months to a year to break down naturally. Using hemp plastic we can largely mitigate the burden of plastic waste that clogs landfills and pollutes oceans.

Renewability

Hemp is a renewable resource that can be grown and harvested annually. The crop grows very fast and can be harvested multiple times each year. The yield is very high at about 25 tons per hectare. Unlike fossil fuels, hemp is renewable and while growing absorbs 15 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare effectively acting as a carbon sink. 

Switch to hemp plastic, reverse ocean pollution by millions of tons

There is little doubt that hemp plastics represent a paradigm shift in material sciences. 

Perhaps a shift as great as in the 1940s when the large-scale use of plastic began. The last decade has clearly shown that plastics have run their course because of the environmental costs associated with their entire life cycle. 

It is time for a change and there is reason to believe that it starts with hemp plastics. Hemp cultivation not only supports bioplastic production but also contributes to broader environmental health. 

At the Hemp Foundation, we are building solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems.