While plenty of cannabis goes up in smoke in coffee shops around the Netherlands, Dutch researchers have found a new use for it - as an environmentally friendly building material to rival cement or steel.
They have used hemp - a variety of cannabis which has many industrial applications including in textiles and insulation - and flax - the plant that linen is made of - to make an experimental footbridge to test the materials' load-bearing properties.
"Actually it's the first 'bio-based' bridge in the world, as far as we know," said Rijk Blok, an assistant professor of structural design at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
Click here to read the complete article
Jim Drury ~ Reuters.com ~
