The Sustainable Paper Alternative with CEO Benjamin Draper

In this episode, Cory Connors talks with Benjamin Draper, CEO of the Hemp Paper Company, about how he entered the industry and why he believes tree‑free, hemp‑based paper can transform sustainable packaging. Benjamin explains how fast‑growing industrial hemp offers environmental advantages such as reduced deforestation, strong recyclable fibers, and soil‑improving benefits. He also shares how his company creates chemical‑free, U.S‑made paper products and prepares to launch new packaging innovations. The conversation covers the resurgence of industrial hemp farming, compostability considerations, and the growing interest from brands seeking high‑impact sustainability solutions.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Benjamin entrepreneurial origin story and unexpected entry into hemp packaging
• Differences between CBD hemp and industrial hemp—and why the confusion persists
• Why hemp is one of the most sustainable fibers on the planet (growth cycles, carbon sequestration, soil health, recyclability)
• The Hemp Paper Company’s tree‑free materials made from hemp and water, with no chemicals used in manufacturing
• Product overview: hemp‑based paper bags, five size options, custom printing, upcoming carton packaging line
• The history of hemp farming in Oregon and the nationwide rise and fall of CBD hemp production
• Current U.S. hemp fiber resurgence, political momentum, and federal interest in reshoring manufacturing
• Compostability vs. recyclability of 100% hemp fiber paper and the need for new standards or certifications
• Youth interest in sustainable agriculture and why hemp could be a catalyst for bringing new generations into farming

Resources Mentioned:

• Hemp Paper Company
• Western Michigan University’s repulpability / recycling testing lab (for future hemp fiber certification)

Contact:

For more information about hemp‑based paper products or partnership opportunities, listeners can connect with Benjamin Draper and the Hemp Paper Company.

Hemp Paper Comany:
LinkedIn
Website

Benjamin Draper : LinkedIn


Thank you for tuning in to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors!

Support our Sponsors 

Learn more here:

• www.3M.com/sustainablepackaging
• https://www.specright.com

Connect with Cory

Connect with Cory on LinkedIn here: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/

I'm here to help you make your packaging more sustainable! Reach out today and I'll get back to you asap. 

This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.

Transcript

0:06

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors presented by Atlantic Packaging. I'm your host, Cory Connors. In today's episode, I connected with the CEO of the hemp paper company, Benjamin Draper. We cover all kinds of hemp and sustainability ideas, and I'm excited to share them with you. I'd also like to thank our sponsors, 3M, SpecRite, and Lorax EPI. We couldn't do the show without them. Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. I've got Mr. Ben Draper, the CEO of Hemp Paper Company and fellow Portland State University alumni. How are you, Ben? I'm good, I'm good, thanks for having me. It's awesome to have you on. I've been fascinated by hemp and the hemp related products for many years. I think like most people in the sustainability industry were kind of waiting for that magic material to come through and, and change the way that we do things in packaging and beyond. But let's, let's talk about you. How did you get into this business? mean, pretty serendipitously, to be honest. Um, I guess I'm like the life purpose side. you know, I always, I always had this delusion that, uh, I could change the world. And I think a lot of us did when we were young and, uh, the big difference is no one ever intervened to talk me out of it. So, you know, so, so with that, randomly, I started a product supply company and, uh, wanted to get my, my, you know, experience in, entrepreneurship, try to make some money. And one thing led to another and I started this disposable packaging company and was getting stuff from China. And then I had these guys reach out to me and said, Hey, can you can you get our boxes like a CBD water company? Like, can you get our boxes for us? And could you do it with him? had no idea what hemp was wasn't really, you know, I had no background. And I was just like, Yeah, I think I can. So so I spent like the next three days just doing a deep dive going down the rabbit hole of what is hemp, who are the players, who's making this stuff, and just found there wasn't a lot. And, you know, I had no idea what I was doing other than just trying to solve a problem for a customer. And then as I was learning more more and more, I just kind of fell in love with the idea of hemp, you know, in regards to the sustainability side. And there's a level of guilt, I think, that I had just from, you know, all this packaging that I'm helping contribute to and none of it seems to help. In fact, it tends to hurt more. So then, you know, I had this epiphany that like, you know, it all kind of came together. And honestly, as strange as it might seem, I had kind of an existential epiphany. just like, I think I'm going to spend the rest of my life working on this. you know, because, for honest, like, there's not a lot of real ways, tangible ways to change the world. I think as you get older, you start to realize that, you know, there's a lot of the youthful spirit of like, we just got to tell people and they'll be better. Didn't quite line up over time. And eventually I realized that I think you change the world by changing choice more than you do by changing minds and just giving, making it more approachable to people. And so anyway, long story, longer is yeah, mean, it's paper packaging is a $400 billion industry and, uh you know, hasn't been disrupted yet. uh for the most part and so I just kind of took it upon myself to to do it. Well done. I've heard about hemp, like I said in the intro for years as, an alternative to paper packaging and just, it's just been little snippets here and there of, this, we're going to try it with this material. We're going to make shirts out of it. We're going to make, we're going to, you know, turn it into CBD things like that. So that's obviously been very successful, but both of us are from the Northwest and or at least lived here for a long time. And we know that that's very common. It's very popular, but to turn it into something used for packaging is very novel and very exciting. I think, especially for people that listen to this podcast, tell us about the company and what you're going to make and how you're going to do it. Yeah. And I think that there it's important to kind of separate those two, two places, which is there's the CBD side of hemp, you know, and a lot of people know of it, you know, it's, it was kind of this miracle serum, uh, if you will, that, was going to solve all your aches and pains and things like that. Now I, I tend to use it as a rub from time to time, but, but it's extremely different than the industrial side and, hemp as a whole can be. uh endless, there's endless applications, plastic, paper, building materials, so on and so forth. And I think a lot of people don't realize the, or know how to distinguish those two things. And there's a lot of, even in the hemp world, there's a lot of arguing and confusion around what is what and who's kind of lobbying what material for what reasons. But on our side, we're really focused on the industrial stuff. And so what we've been able to do is, is, I mean, we've made the most sustainable paper packaging on the planet. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong, feel free. But yeah, we're really excited. mean, you our materials made from hemp and water. It's made here in the US. You know, we're looking at international just to service those markets as well and also help drive some costs down. But overall, like, you know, we want to make it here. We want to be the leaders in sustainability. so we've done, you know, paper bags is our kind of flagship product. for now. And we're about to launch our packaging like a carton packaging side of uh the business. It takes a little bit more time, as you can imagine for that R &D. But yeah, we should have some samples and prototypes out in the next month or two. And we're excited. And so yeah, I mean, we want to be able to help make this approachable to brands. I think a lot of brands, a lot of people, they care. And they should. Because, you know, there's a better way to do it. You know, less bad is better, but it's not good. You know, and so I think that's that's kind of the vantage point uh we're taking is like, hey, we can be it's more expensive, of course. But it's an industry of scale problem. And over time, we're, you we're we've got our bags and we're getting out there and we're finding innovative ways to drive that cost down and we have, you know, we can customize with printing on the bags, uh we've got the supply chain down, we can You know, we got delivery, we've got five bag sizes you can choose from. We're working on getting the handles because we've heard from a lot of people that handles are important. But yeah, so we're just trying to kind of lead the way in the super sustainable side of packaging. Well, that's excellent. I've got lots of questions. You made a big statement there saying this is the most sustainable uh material. So tell us why, why is hemp so sustainable? I've heard it from others, but I want to hear your thoughts. Yeah, I mean, wow, where to start. So just hemp in general, you know, it's a fast growing crop, three months, rather than two to three decades that a tree takes, you know, helps reduce deforestation, which has a myriad of environmental problems, which we all are pretty cognizant of. Stronger fiber, you can do more with less. Sequestration is a big factor with hemp. It sequesters more carbon than trees do. And then if you stop cutting down trees, you think that's, you know, even better. And, uh and you got a longer carbon life cycle for the material itself. It can be recycled more times. And it's a big one is the ability to improve the soil quality. It can be a great cover crop for farmers, pull the toxins and harsh metals from the soil. And, and on top of it's got thousands of applications. mean, it can touch just about every physical industry you think of, like I said, paper, plastic, textile building materials. It's a, you know, food source protein CBD. It does feel a little snake oily, like it's like, it could be everything. But you know, I encourage everybody to look it up and not trust just what I'm saying. But, uh but, but do the research and check it out. I mean, it's it's pretty extraordinary. There's a reason why I dedicated my life to do this now. It's not for for no reason. So so yeah, that's kind of my My belief of hemp. That's awesome. I'm excited to hear it. And I think it's really innovative and exciting. But I think what a lot of people don't realize is hemp has been around a long time. And one of the factories in downtown Portland near near my house used to be a hemp rope factory. And it's so cool because they turned it into a brewery, of course, like like everything in Oregon. And so you can actually look at the floor and see the marks where the rope wound through the factory as it was produced. And it was just, you know, they make it for, made it for the marine supply industry there at the port, which is very, makes a lot of sense. But it's one of those things where it's been around a long time and now it's, we're trying to find new innovations and new ways to use it. like packaging, which is really, you know, really cool. eh I'd like to talk about how it's grown, where it's grown. Because for a while there in our prep call, we were talking about how in Oregon, it was growing everywhere one year, and then the next year, nowhere. And I just I would love to know a little bit about that history. and kind of where we are now with growing him. Yeah, I mean, you know, there was the big CBD boom. And that cooled off. I think a lot of had to do with the FDA not making a determination on what's safe for you to ingest. And, there was those sides of things. And, you know, and farmers were promised a lot in because it is so versatile, because it can be so many things. And then, you know, we COVID didn't help anything for anybody. But but especially this, you know, this space and innovating and the FDA got a little bit busy with the COVID thing. And so I think this dropped on their priority. And there wasn't really the lobbyists there on the hemp side to really help push it the way that it could be or should be. But yeah, I think that that boom kind of slowed down. Farmers were confused because they thought we could make all this stuff with it. So why aren't people doing it? And then it was just a matter of, you know, investment and innovation. in that space not happening. And so, you you saw it bubble up and then it kind of dropped down. But but we're seeing a resurgence of the fiber all across the country now. You know, I'm actually currently, I'm out in Hawaii right now. uh Yeah, poor me. but, uh but I'm working out here with with one of the Center Center, Mike Gabbard, and he's a huge hemp advocate. And uh they want to grow it here. And he's he's for the past you know, 30 years, maybe more, he's been a big proponent of wanting to push the future of hemp. And he thinks Hawaii is a great place. Obviously, you know, the love for the Aina and the environment here is super important in the culture. And so, yeah, you're seeing a lot of, you know, even in lobbying areas too, within the federal government, have people like, you know, Jeff Walling is a great ambassador and a big advocate that's helping. push legislation forward. And we're getting back, we're getting some awareness out there. We have obviously companies like mine to turn it into stuff to show and validate that this is real, which you know, I take a lot of responsibility in that too, and trying to make this cooler, if you will, because you know, to some people paper is boring. And, uh and I understand that. uh But yeah. It's such a cool material. Yeah, no, it is. Especially on this side, like for him as well. I mean, it's just like, you know, and so we're looking at workshops and things like that to get younger people involved because look, you know, I think it's no secret that the young people really care and they they when I was younger too, you know, I'm 38 now, but when I was younger, I was much more, you know, ambitious with my self-righteousness and believing that, you know, we were going to be the ones or whatever. But I think they do want to make a change and they do want to impact the world. And if you look at farming in general, I we need younger people to get into farming and we need them to see that there's something that you can farm that actually impacts the world. And I think this is a great opportunity to translate that and make it cool. You you see this kind of like, you see this, the pop culture changing to kind of blue collar and country music being very popular now and that whole kind of. vibe and I think that there's something there, know, especially with hemp. It's just a matter of getting it out there. People don't know about it. And so, so we're seeing so to answer your question, I guess, or maybe not, but but we're really seeing a slow, steady increase in production. And we just kind of need more people to figure it out. And it is expensive to do it in the US as we all know. But if the federal government, the administration currently is interested in doing what they're what they have to uh proposed to do, which is bring manufacturing here. I think if we can subsidize to farmers and we can create grants of innovation grants for new materials, is, know, hemp is the way. It's really the fiber of the future. so I think we're going to slowly see that uh start to bubble back up. But yeah, it's there. It's just slowly working its way back. That's cool. The fiber of the future. That's really neat. I was in Maui last month and we got to visit a chocolate grove uh where they had 6,500 chocolate trees. And uh it was really amazing to see how they're irrigating and how they're using these old sugar cane fields. And they turn them into groves of chocolate trees. And I thought, That's really cool how they're growing those pods and they're turning them into world renowned award winning chocolate uh because it's very, the word they use was very fruity tasting. I thought that's really interesting. I think hemp is the same way where it can take on some of the flavors of the environment. Not that that matters for paper, but you never know the future products. source. Yeah, it is definitely a food source for sure. And yeah, and there's a lot of pineapple fields out here that have been abandoned and they have plenty of space. They have the perfect conditions and it's just about organizing and building a plan. And we're trying to do that with the local government here. That's excellent. I'd like to talk a little bit about some of the ins and outs of hemp as a paper material. As a packaging professional, I think my customers would ask, is it recyclable? Is it recyclable with tree fibers or non-tree fibers? Are there other alternatives to paper, to wood, tree, fiber, paper? Or is it better to compost it because it's a different material? Yeah, I mean, we're still working through it to give you straightforward answer. We're still trying to define that exactly because it is a bit of a gray area. At the end of the day, with how we make it with what we do, it's 100 % hemp, no chemicals, just hemp and water, and a lot of horsepower pressure. And so you know, it's a proprietary way that our team has figured out how to do this. But but yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, We believe it can definitely go to all those different waste streams and it shouldn't be a problem. But we really encourage the composting side of it because our paper is backyard compostable. But you start adding different inks and things like that, then obviously that changes that. But in regards to the raw paper itself, it's totally backyard compostable. And we're still working through all of the technical side of getting certifications because there isn't really a real US certification for that based on what we've looked into. So we're just really trying to find out exactly what we can do. And if we have to coin one and create it, we're happy to do it. But yeah, think so we're working on it. We're working to get the exact definitions of everything, but it's just plant material. So yeah. Western Michigan has a great lab for that. They have a testing lab for repulpable materials. so I'll connect you with them after this. Maybe they can help with that certification as repulpable. And then that basically means recyclable because paper manufacturers will want those fibers. into their, especially if they're stronger than tree fibers, you know, they'll want those into their raw materials and that'll be really helpful to you and the team. So yeah, I'll connect you with them. Yeah, please do. Yeah, that's awesome. So what's next? We got some more testing. We got some potential grows out in Hawaii. If you need us to visit, let me know. I'll be happy to be out there. Thank you. Yeah, I think, you know, where we're at, we're just trying to continue to get out there. I mean, our biggest problem is awareness and people, you have what? And so we've really tried to focus on just saying tree free, rather than try to explain hemp because it is there. There's like, there's a faint understanding in most people's mind about hemp, whether that's some hippie stuff for it's marijuana or this and that. And there's there's some confusion there. So we're trying to simplify and then eventually continue to get it out there and make it simple for people to understand whether we got to do a Super Bowl commercial or whatever it is. We're working through some innovative ways that we can get that out there. But yeah, we really want to just keep scaling. obviously this helps. Your contribution of taking the time to talk to me is I really do appreciate because it is important. you know, and any connections you might know or have and obviously who you work with and it's appreciated. And I think that we're just going to keep getting products out there and focus on our bags for right now and get this carton packaging up and running. And then just look for brands. I mean, we've had some really great conversations with some luxury brands that are very, you know, they have very aggressive sustainability efforts that they're trying to fulfill. And we think we can help them with that. And so we've got some prototypes, things we're working on with them. And we think that uh nature is the ultimate luxury. And so let's save it. And we're doing our part. What a great way to end the show. Nature is the ultimate luxury. I love that. Well said, Ben. Thank you for being on. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and keep up the good work. It's exciting. I can't wait to share these products with the world when they're ready. Thank you, I appreciate it.