Global Efforts to Reduce Environmental Pollution Can Be Based on Hemp Technologies
Given the interest of European companies in the use of hemp raw materials as a basis for reorienting the EU market from fossil raw materials to renewable ones, it makes sense to consider the issue of creating appropriate production facilities closer to the consumer, for example, in the western regions of Ukraine.
Hemp entrepreneurs from all economically developed countries of the world are ending 2020 with significant resources and efforts to reduce environmental pollution with goods made from fossil raw materials. In particular, at the end of 2020, the Canadian government published a list of disposable plastic products that will be banned for use in the country by the end of 2021. Restrictions on the use of disposable plastic items include straws, coffee stirrers, beverage rings, plastic cutlery, takeout containers, and plastic bags. The ban on the use of polyethylene and plastic disposables is part of the government's strategy to reach zero for plastic waste generated by industry in Canada by 2030. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first announced plans to ban the use of harmful single-use plastics and the need to hold companies accountable for generating plastic waste in June 2019.
US President-elect Joe Biden, during his speeches, regularly emphasizes the thesis that the United States will rejoin the Paris Agreement on January 20, the first day of his presidency. More than 500 different US environmental organizations and groups have banded together to ask the country's incoming president to take additional steps to curb plastic pollution. The list of proposed restrictions includes a federal ban on the purchase of single-use plastics and the suspension or denial of building permits for new or expanded fossil-based packaging manufacturing facilities.
In Europe, at the level of regulatory legal acts, the use of various types of plastic and polyethylene products and the transition to products from biocomposite materials, primarily made on hemp basis, are prohibited. The hemp plant is at the heart of the EU's long-term plan to transition to a clean circular economy, halt climate change, reverse biodiversity loss and significantly reduce environmental pollution.
The above trends have become the basis for the rapid development of various kinds of companies specializing in the development of the latest technologies and methods of using hemp raw materials for the production of biocomposite, packaging materials, cellulose, etc. Hundreds of product samples have been created, clearly demonstrating that hemp raw materials are a renewable alternative to fossil, which in a number of characteristics not only does not yield, but also surpasses products and goods made from polyethylene or plastic, which are based on fossil raw materials.
Commentary of experts of the Association "Ukrainian technical hemp"
Realizing the fact that the huge EU market, which is located in close proximity to national producers of hemp raw materials and is one of the main potential consumers of products made from it, several projects are being implemented in Ukraine aimed at preparing hemp raw materials or manufacturing semi-finished products or final products from hemp cellulose, or biocomposite materials. Given the interest of European companies in the use of hemp raw materials as a basis for reorienting the EU market from fossil raw materials to renewable ones, it makes sense to consider the issue of creating appropriate production facilities closer to the consumer, for example, in the western regions of Ukraine.