The Hair Out There

Here's a great idea for you to pass on to the salon where you get your hair cut or the groomer who clips your pets. Human hair, as we all know, gets greasy from absorbing oils on your head and in the environment. A San Francisco environmental group, A Matter of Trust, has taken that observation even farther.

It seems that when a ship spilled 58,000 gallons of greasy liquid into San Francisco Bay last November, a number of organizations, Matter of Trust among them, donated more than 5,000 mats made of woven human hair to help soak up the slick. This was the first time that hair mats had been used in an oil spill cleanup effort!

"Within the first 72 hours these hair mats were just slurping up oil," says co-founder of the group, Lisa Gautier. "You would just dab it like a paper towel, and it would soak it right up."

Matter of Trust runs a program on its website for hair salons and pet grooming salons around the country to contribute their excess hair which they weave into 1 foot by 1 foot squares. In return, Matter of Trust will send participating salons posters that advertise their recycling efforts.

As far as I'm concerned, this is a win-win situation. Salons get rid of the hair in a meaningful way and hair helps save sea animals who might become entrapped in oil slicks. A wonderful idea and a true no-brainer when it comes to doing the right thing for the environment.

A Matter of Trust is also conducting an experiment to see if these hair squares can be put to other uses. $10,000 worth of oyster mushroom spores, donated by Washington State mycologist Paul Staments, are currently being added to the hair mats to see whether or not the mushrooms will digest the oil and the mats will turn into compost. You can follow the progress of the experiment on the website.

Any kind of hair works so spread the word. The mats are also currently in use in a San Francisco Department of the Environment motor oil collection program, so your hair will be put to good use even if there are no more oil spills!