What Is Hemp Used For? From Paper and Hempcrete to Batteries and Cars

What is hemp used for? Paper, hempcrete, bioplastics, fabric, food, even batteries and car parts, and people have been finding new uses for it for thousands of years.

Using hemp is nothing new

Over the centuries, the cannabis plant has been put to work in countless ways. From medicine, spirituality and religion to food, cannabis has been essential to human society for thousands of years, and it still is.

On top of that, hemp was used to make fabric, paper and even food. From China to Turkey, India and the United States, communities all over the world have used hemp to their advantage through the years.

Today hemp is fully legal in a number of countries, and companies are increasingly turning to the plant for innovative ways to make things, even though regulations are still incredibly strict. 

What can hemp be used for?

Here are some of the different, and pretty amazing, ways hemp has been used throughout history and is still used today:

Paper: Making paper from hemp goes back to China's Han dynasty, around 200 BC. Over the years it was used for important historical documents and literature: it's often said that Mark Twain's novels were printed on hemp paper. Russia's banking industry reportedly used hemp paper in the 19th century, too. It stayed popular until around the 1930s, when paper started being made from trees. Now companies are slowly starting to come back to hemp paper.

Milk: We all know you can make milk from almonds, chestnuts and even oats, but did you know you can make hemp milk too? Hemp milk is rich in minerals and vitamins. To make your own, just blend hemp seeds with water and strain. You can add a natural sweetener for flavor. 

Hempcrete: Concrete is heavy and hard to haul around, but hemp is light. The one catch is that hempcrete can't be used for load-bearing structures; it's used as insulating infill.

Fabric: Considered an eco-friendly "super fiber," hemp has always been, and still is, used to make clothing. Thanks to the plant's strong fibers, more and more sustainable designers are turning to it.

Plastic: Another big use for hemp is turning it into plastic. We use plastic every day, yet most of it is still made from polluting, non-biodegradable chemicals. Hemp plastic is a cleaner, greener alternative. 

Batteries: This versatile plant can also be used to make batteries from hemp fibers. Scientists have used it to build supercapacitors, energy-storage devices that charge and release electricity in quick bursts, unlike the batteries we're used to.

Cars: While a lot of cars use fiberglass parts, panels made from woven hemp are lighter and more dent-resistant. Henry Ford's "hemp car" was one of the first cars in the US built with hemp-based materials. Pretty wild, right?

Solar panels: Solar panels already help us save energy by tapping the planet's natural resources, and researchers are exploring hemp as a way to make them even more efficient. The idea is that hemp-based materials could help capture and store the energy the panels produce.

Beyond these unexpected and impressive uses, hemp can also go into ink, nail polish, diapers, paint, cosmetics and flour. What we keep wondering is why industries still put up roadblocks and restrictions, and we keep running into the same answers. 

The economic interests and power of big industry sometimes favor more harmful products as long as they make more money. Here's hoping society soon pulls in the same direction: an eco-friendly, sustainable and green one. 

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