[carlmr]

Hemp paper I don't know, but as a replacement for cotton it's pretty good.

>because hemp is, apparently, cheaper and better

Economies of scale might make it more expensive right now, because we're all using cotton. It could be a local maximum.

Also paper production for classical paper has been optimized to great lengths, maybe you'd need similar efforts to get great paper out of hemp. This doesn't mean it's not possible or the material isn't better. Just that you first have to convince everybody to use it. Again this could be a local maximum we're in.

Just look at how much money we're spending on improving batteries for EVs now. We spent 150 years optimizing ICE vehicles. For EVs to get cheaper and better we need a lot of subsidies, from a lot of countries, for a few decades.

[Animats]

Somehow, the hemp enthusiasts don't get excited about the other bast fibers - manila, kenaf, jute, okra, ramie - all of which are used industrially.

Kenaf paper works reasonably well.

[carlmr]

That is a very good point, I'm not deep enough into fibres to analyze this. My approach was more from an optimization/industrialization perspective. I'm pretty sure hemp has a more vocal following for obvious reasons.

Still I think we could probably do better than cotton and trees in terms of environment.

[supermatt]

With the exception of Ramie (which is a much less productive crop - similar yield to flax, but without the seed), none of those plants are grown in colder climates.