Human hair helps absorb oil in Gulf of Mexico
This sign surprised me today on Commercial Drive.
Kokopelli Hair & Body Lounge on Commercial Drive is one of them. The salon started doing this a month ago after stylist Katrina Molson learned about Matter of Trust – a nonprofit ecological charity established in 1998.
The hair is shipped to a warehouse, stuffed into old nylons and shrimp bags, and made into booms that collect oil near the shores. They are not being used by BP because BP is using their own synthetic booms for absorbing oil.
“As of June 11, 2010 in the 19 warehouses at the Gulf and the one warehouse in San Francisco CA, we have over 10 miles of boom stuffed,” reads the Matter of Trust website. “We have enough boxes, bags and pallets of fiber and donated nylons to make another 15 miles to total 25 miles of boom made from donations by volunteers in just over 1 month!”
Hair does not decompose naturally. It’s usually put into the waste stream, which is where the donated hair will also end up – but at least it will have soaked up some of the oil. The oil spill waste is incinerated or put in a hazardous waste landfill.
Matter of Trust has more than enough hair at the moment, so no more donations are needed.
Pretty bizarre eh?