Sounds like an April fools day joke but it isn’t; a deal struck by UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Ford UK and Hemcore, a company that grows cannabis plants, will attempt to develop a recyclable vehicle with materials made from hemp (common name for plants of the genus Cannabis). British Ministers have already agreed to drop more than £500,000 ($1m or €740,000) to support the project.
To get an idea of what we’re talking about, the cannabis fibers will be blended with polypropylene and the resulting mixture will then be molded into body parts. Apart form the fact that hemp-based materials are fully recyclable, they have high strength and stiffness, low raw material and energy costs and probably even more important, they are lighter than other materials. Ballpark figures suggest that cannabis-based materials could replace up to 100kg – 220 lb of other plastics, metals and resins used within the average car
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