NHA and Hemp Paper Company are working together to put American hemp paper into everyday use — starting with NHA’s commitment to fund 2,500 bags for communities across the country.

For the hemp industry, one of the biggest opportunities may also be one of the simplest: giving people the chance to actually use something made from hemp.

That is the idea behind ZERO-TREE™, a community bag-funding campaign from Hemp Paper Company. Supporters fund hemp paper bags for community use rather than receiving the bags themselves, with four areas of focus: food banks and pantries, classrooms, beach cleanups and small businesses.

The National Hemp Association is taking part with a $500 commitment, enough to fund approximately 2,500 hemp paper bags.

For NHA, that investment represents something larger than the bags themselves.

It is an opportunity to put hemp into everyday hands.

From advocacy to everyday experience

NHA works nationally to advance industrial hemp through education, market development, member engagement and public policy.

But building an industry also requires building familiarity.

For many Americans, hemp is still something they have heard about rather than something they have knowingly used. A paper bag changes that interaction. It gives someone something tangible to carry, use, discuss and recognize.

That is what makes this campaign compelling.

A hemp paper bag used for groceries, classroom materials or community activities can introduce the crop in a way that a brochure, presentation or policy paper simply cannot.

As NHA Chairman Geoff Whaling put it:

“Every one of these bags shows people what hemp can do. When a family carries groceries home in a bag made from hemp instead of trees, that does more for our industry than any brochure. We’re proud to help put 2,500 of them to work.”

A product people already understand

Hemp Paper Company has focused first on one of the most familiar packaging formats in the marketplace: the paper bag.

Its bags are made from 100% hemp fiber, rather than a hemp-and-wood-pulp blend, and are available in five standard sizes. The company states that the bags are manufactured in the United States and carry USDA Certified Biobased Product certification at 100% biobased content.

Hemp Paper Company founder Ben Draper helped bring hemp paper into everyday retail through a Hawaii partnership with Safeway and Hawaii State Federal Credit Union. The launch demonstrated how sustainability becomes tangible when manufacturers, retailers, sponsors and communities work together — turning hemp from an idea into a product people can actually use.

That familiarity matters.

People do not need to learn how to use a paper bag. They already understand the product. What changes is the material.

That creates an immediate opportunity to introduce hemp as a functional, commercially usable fiber rather than simply an agricultural possibility.

Hemp Paper Company has already demonstrated that model commercially. The company reports that Hawaii State Federal Credit Union funded a 25,000-bag co-branded run for select Safeway stores in Hawaii, putting hemp paper directly into a retail environment consumers already know. 

ZERO-TREE extends that same concept into community use.

How ZERO-TREE works

The program is designed to be simple.

Supporters choose a community-use category and fund bags beginning at $10. Hemp Paper Company then allocates and delivers the bags in batches for an appropriate use. Published options include $198 for 1,000 bags, $1,800 for 10,000 bags and $4,000 for 25,000 bags.

The four categories are:

Food banks and pantries — for suitable grocery and packaged-item distribution.

Classrooms — for take-home learning kits, supplies and school activities.

Beach cleanups — for appropriate light, dry collection tasks.

Small businesses — for customer packaging and other agreed local uses.

NHA’s $500 commitment will fund approximately 2,500 bags through the campaign.

One bag can start a bigger conversation

Hemp Paper Company estimates that every 1,000 hemp paper bags funded through the program corresponds to approximately one tree saved. Under that estimate, NHA’s 2,500-bag commitment represents roughly 2.5 trees. The company identifies that figure specifically as its own estimate.

But for NHA, the bigger opportunity is visibility.

Every bag placed into use creates another chance for someone to encounter hemp in a familiar setting and ask a simple question:

What is this made from?

That question can open a much larger conversation about American agriculture, manufacturing, fiber markets and the role industrial hemp can play in the products people use every day.

Helping build the market

Industrial hemp has potential applications across paper, packaging, construction materials, textiles, nonwovens, agriculture, energy and advanced manufacturing.

But markets do not develop through possibility alone.

They develop when farmers grow crops, processors produce usable material, manufacturers turn that material into products, businesses adopt those products and consumers begin recognizing hemp as a legitimate industrial input.

That is why a paper bag matters.

It makes the supply chain visible.

And it turns hemp from an idea into something people can actually hold.

NHA is starting with 2,500 bags

NHA is proud to make the first move with a $500 commitment to ZERO-TREE, funding approximately 2,500 hemp paper bags for community use.

Now we are inviting our members, partners and broader industry community to participate alongside us.

Contributions begin at $10, and supporters can choose the community-use category they want to support. Contributions purchase bags for distribution; they are not charitable donations and are not tax-deductible.

Help us put hemp into more everyday hands.

Support ZERO-TREE

About Hemp Paper Company

Hemp Paper Company develops paper packaging made from hemp fiber instead of wood pulp. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, the company sells blank and custom-printed hemp paper bags and supports community distribution through its ZERO-TREE™ campaign. Its current commercial focus is paper bags, with folding cartons and paperboard also in development.

Founder and CEO Benjamin Draper has focused the company on moving hemp-fiber paper from material potential into commercial use through product development, manufacturing relationships and customer adoption.