2. Plastic
Change is hard. Modifying the building blocks of our daily lives requires a sense of commitment and ingenuity. We’re well on our way to adjusting, even down to what we give kids to play with.
LEGO, the colorful peg block from your youth, has committed to switching to more sustainable materials than plastic. Their investment of $150 million may be for a hemp-derived plastic.
Hemp is as a cost-efficient and biodegradable material. So it all goes without saying that the options are limitless and far larger in scope than the tiny LEGO blocks.
This type of hemp plastic works perfectly for furniture or even drinking straws. The plastics we’re used to buying rely on petroleum. As it stands right now, fossil fuels remain cheaper for manufacturing these items like furniture, computer parts or LEGO blocks.
The US must import hemp in large quantities at high cost from countries like China because hemp agriculture still remains federally illegal. But change is on the rise. Many states are working to establish hemp farming programs and on an industrial scale. With the potential to grow the crop in-state, plastic will have difficulty keeping up in the manufacturing world.
It’s only a matter of time before the tiny blocks that can make the Star Wars Millennium Falcon will consist of quality, eco-friendly hemp.
