This article, Hempcrete in spotlight, By Marjorie Cook in on Otago Daily Times on Friday, 25 October 2024
Hempcrete in spotlight
Wānaka start-up businesswoman Tanya Simmonds is delighted with the uptake in interest in hemp building materials, six months after she imported a hempcrete processing plant from Australia and set it up on her Queensberry property.
Fourteen members of the New Zealand Hemp Industry Association (NZHIA) completed a workshop at her plant, where they were tutored by Australian hemp industry processors on making and colouring hempcrete for use in the construction industry.
Mrs Simmonds is keen to add another hemp start-up initiative to her fledgling business and has begun investigating making hemp textiles.
“A textile plant is now sitting in a container, which I purchased from a woman in the North Island, Nancy King, who runs the charity Earthskin.
“That won’t be set up until early next year but I think the potential to make textiles in this area is huge,” she said.
Mrs Simmonds said she first went to a NZHIA course in Rotorua in 2020 and was “blown away” by hemp’s sustainable qualities and the range of hemp materials that could be created.
This article, Hempcrete in spotlight, By Marjorie Cook in on Otago Daily Times on Friday, 25 October 2024
