420 Live Stream – How Sustainable Hemp Paper is Compared to Regular Paper?
We’ve heard of hemp medication and skincare but paper? Yes, hemp-based paper, let’s dive further into the core of this information.
The non-hemp current paper industries use the different pulp as raw materials. Also, there is the use of bleach and chlorine to whiten up the paper which leads to pollution. This is the problem that they have tried to reduce while making the hemp paper. Any paper is made up of two components: cellulose and Lignin, no matter if it’s wood or non-wood. OG Hemp is a company that manufactures hemp-based papers.
Mr. Sarabjit Ratan is the co-founder and chief business officer of OG Hemp. They are in sustainability and doing business for the last 10 years. They started working on hemp 3 years ago. In their stages of researching what other people were doing, they got to see that the paper was the most underrated and under-explored and it can benefit various industry verticals. That’s why they decided to focus their efforts on paper.
Q: From where do they source the raw materials? What type of hemp are they using?
A: They are using Indian-grown hemp. We source it from Uttarakhand but when the requirement is high and the time is less we import also. It all depends upon the requirement.
Q: How many types of paper do they manufacture?
A: There are mainly two types of paper. One is brown colored and another has a light brown color. The brown has very little amount of processing done in it. We don’t add any reagent in it to reduce the composition from hemp to anything else while the other light brown color is more processed. It is also soft as compared to the previous one. The two different types of processing are done to achieve different kinds of paper.
Q: Do you manufacture colored papers? What are the other products that they offer?
A: We use natural colors to manufacture different colors of paper. They have colors like lime, black, green, red, and yellow. They also manufacture such papers that proved to be food packaging friendly. They currently exist in the packaging industry and we do custom orders. We also manufacture bags that are made up of a hundred percent hemp. Their strength is great as compared to the other paper bags and cardboard in the market.
Q: What is GSM?
A: It is a value that relates to the thickness of the paper. A unit of thickness but it depicts the gram of paper which is per square meter. Thicker the paper, more will be the per square meter and so the GSM.
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Q: Can we have prints on the hemp paper?
A: It works well with prints. They have teamed up with artists skilled at using different colors on the papers. Also, they have tested their sheets for various color types and their printing quality and the artist’s work on the paper is something that consumers love.
Q: From where can people buy the products?
A: People who want to purchase hemp paper must reach the website hempistani.com and check out the hemp stationery section where hemp papers, diaries, and printed papers are present. All the designs, colors, and print quality are awesome.
Q: How sustainable are the products?
A: The whole journey from the hemp to the paper takes more time but it is the best since the processes that lead to pollution are less. It uses fewer chemicals. So this is how sustainability is addressed. Regarding the quality of paper and recyclability and the number of carbon offsets, these are some of the variables that support it to be called more sustainable.
Q: What kind of techniques or technologies are used to produce the paper? Is it industrial or completely hand-based handmade?
A: When we started we were completely based on the handmade products that were made by artisans but then have moved to the semi-mechanized version of it and now we have semi-handmade paper as well. The process now has gotten faster to get more in the same amount of time. We are yet to achieve fully automated.
Q: What is the future of the paper industry especially in India for hemp?
A: We see a lot of affinity towards hemp paper especially from the people in the industry. Companies who make card papers and specialty papers show a keen interest in our products.
Q: What is the biggest size of the paper they manufacture? How much time does it take to manufacture that size of paper?
A: The biggest size that they manufacture is B1. They are made for artists and the size is between 28 to 40 inches. They are taken by The artist and they can divide them into whatever size they want. As it is a handmade product, it takes time to manufacture but the speed of the artisans is what they are appreciated for. It takes some extra time to make a paper from this product because of the strength and fibers and hemp and how they are bonded to each other.
Apart from packaging products in the industry they do corporate solutions like making business cards, envelopes, etc. They also make stickers in various shapes and sizes to suit the company’s requirements.
