Recession Cuts Operation That Uses Hair To Clean Up Oil

Matter of Trust, a nonprofit that uses human hair scraps to make mats to clean up oil spills, finds itself with 18,000 pounds of hair and nobody to process it. Lisa Gautier, who runs the organization, says that the recession has closed many of the textile makers that produced the mats and the warehouse that stored them. Unfortunately for Lisa the hair keeps piling up. From the article: "Hair is good at soaking up oil because, up close, the strands are shaped like a palm tree with scalelike cuticles. Drops of oil naturally cling inside those cuticles, says Blair Blacker, chief executive of the World Response Group. A pound of hair can pick up one quart of oil in a minute, and it can be wrung out and reused up to 100 times, Mrs. Gautier says."

Comments

Does it have to be human?

[Nick Number]

In defiance of logic, our cats seem to shed several times their own volume in hair every week.

Using it to clean up oil spills would be more useful than having it decorate our carpets and furniture.

Re:Does it have to be human?

[Nick Number]

Ah, the organization's page mentioned by an AC below answers my question.

Pet owners: Fur, horse hair and wool is fine. Fur is curly which helps more in making mats. It does seem that human hair has less natural oil and is more efficient in soaking up oil. So, we are finding the sweet spot of ratio fur to hair! Pet hair doesn't have to be shampooed - but we ask that it not be filthy, please.

I think we just found a new cause to donate to.

And speaking of BP...

[RevWaldo]

If you think this massive oil spill didn't have to happen, well, you're right.

Oh, and BP bears responsibility for Exxon Valdez too.

http://www.gregpalast.com/slick-operator-the-bp-ive-known-too-well/?print=1

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Re:Obvious solution

[Hoi Polloi]

I don't want it mutating into a giant killer toupee.