Using plants that grow quicker and use less water seems like a better business decision to me.
In: 211
Ok, I’m going to shed some light on this from a manufacturing perspective. I worked for 4.5 years in a paper manufacturing adjacent company that supplied some additives to them.
First, let’s talk about history of paper. It’s been around for a very, very long time as far as industrial manufacturing goes. In the US, most paper mills are very old and have been in existence for 100+ years. The paper industry is reluctant to change due to ingrained practices and limitations for older equipment.
It’s hard to imagine just how big paper machines are- think of a football field covered in a mesh that transports paper moving at about 1000-3000 feet per minute. I felt like a bug standing next to one.
Those differences alone would be difficult, but not as difficult to overcome as the next issue.
The real issue with using alternative sources of cellulose (like bamboo or hemp) is that the fibers act very differently from tree wood derived cellulose. There are SO many properties of wood fibers that affect the final product. And all of them have been developed using wood fibers. For example, softwood fibers (like pine) are much longer than hardwood fibers. They also refine (basically open up and become more like velcro) differently than hardwood fibers. A good paper will use a set ratio of hardwood and softwood fibers. From what I heard and read, hemp and bamboo both create much, much longer fibers after refining than wood. This affects the finished product manufacturing and goes back to the first point where it is difficult to make those changes. There are other chemical effects but I’ll leave it here for it to be ELI5.
Lastly, hemp and bamboo are not yet cultivated to the same degree as trees. In the US, there is a robust forestry system (same in places like Sweden which produce a bunch of paper). There are a lot of tree farms. Plus, there has been a push in the industry to move away from slower growing hardwoods and move more into softwoods. Good for the environment, but has definitely caused some negative impacts in consumer goods quality that require creative solutions to solve.
We also have to consider how the fast growing plants like hemp and bamboo affect the land quality over time.
I think we are still headed in the direction of alternative sources (a very good thing!) but it won’t happen overnight. I personally hope that hemp becomes a major source in the future.
TL;DR: it’s not as easy as being a drop in replacement. You’ve got old equipment that was developed for a specific raw material, and industry that has 100+ years with that raw material, and certain expectations from consumers for product quality and properties. But it is slowly changing.
Marijuana original ban was mostly pushed by big paper to stop the competition from hemp, you can still make hemp from special non thc marijuana plants, but it is much more expensive to grow.
In some cases they do, it’s just that fir many years hemp was banned because it was often difficult to tell the bulk crop from cannabis.
As to bamboo, until recent advances in fibre treatment I’m led to understand that bamboo paper would be quite irritating to use.
In Western Australia the crown “owns” all of the land taken from the aboriginal people (that isn’t already private land).
They don’t view forests as an ecosystem, they view it as a resource. All the big trees were already cut down to pave London streets with Jarrah many years ago, so all that’s left is forests with timber not suitable for furniture.
So they cut it down for woodchips and charcoal. Again, this is because they view it as a resource and not an ecosystem. The forest grows itself with no need to plant it or water it.
Poplar grows pretty quick. There were a bunch of tree farms, not too far from where I grew up.
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/09/boardman-tree-farm-of-greenwood.html?m=1
Trees are easy to grow. And the kind of trees used for paper comes from wood farms. They quite literally don’t take much effort to grow other than about every 10 years you need to go and clear the inferior stock, which is what gets sold to make paper.
Now why ain’t bamboo used? Bamboo is a grass. To use it as a material, which is perfectly doable and is used in many places. You’d need to re-engineer the whole process. Turning wood in to cellulose is a complicated chemical process and a massive scale. These are the facilities that are in use at this moment.
Also hemp is a bad alternative, it requires farmland to grow. Harvesting is expensive and complicated. This farmland is more valuable to use to grow food for humans and animals.
Bamboo however, well you’d need the climate and environment to support it then start growing it. Nothing stopping you. However you are competing against vast tracks of land growing trees. Bamboo is only environmentally friendly when grown in an environment where it naturally grows and is not used to displace other things.
Now another important note is that a tree has WAY more biomass than bamboo. Bamboo is hollow, it is mainly empty space. A tree farm can produce bigger yield after long times and more variety of materials. The under 30 year old trees go to pulp and pellets depending on quality, over 30 years start to become good material for construction. Depending on the way you harvest, selectively over long period of time or clear cutting you can get different kind of value.
Now the companies making cellulose don’t particularly care about the quality or grade of wood, they care about the price of it. Companies making disposable paper don’t care at all about where the pulp comes from as long as it meets the specifications.
I personally belief bamboo is the future. Bamboo composites have exciting engineering properties. But bamboo is used mainly in places where it grows. It doesn’t grow in Europe or North-America particularly well. Shipping it from abroad is not worth the money. If you wanted to use bamboo you process it where it grows.
Now where bamboo grows, it is used a lot. However it doesn’t grow up north. It’s northernmost areas are the northern parts of Japan, which is barely at the level of mediterrian.
Latest Answers