Posted by Janet Harriett on May.08, 2010

Photo Credit: US Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Public Affairs

No matter where you are, you can help the efforts to clean up the Gulf oil spill, and recycle at the same time. Matter of Trust is collecting donations of hair, fur and pantyhose to help with spill containment and remediation. Oily hair on your head may be bad, but hair’s affinity for oil also makes it a great tool for getting oil out of water and away from where it can damage ecosystems. The hair gets stuffed into the nylons to create booms that, when attached end-to-end, contain the oil and stop the spread. Hair is also made into oil-absorbing hair mats that can be used to remove the oil from the water and to line the enclosures of oil-soaked wildlife while the animals wait to be scrubbed and cleaned.

To help the cause, sign up for Matter of Trust’s Excess Access database. Because of limited warehouse resources, the organization is directing individual donations to separate locations where they can be used most efficiently. Once you’ve signed up for Excess Access, you’ll receive instructions and a shipping address for your donations. Anyone can donate clean hair. To keep the processing times down, the group prefers larger donations of bulk hair and fur from barber shops and pet groomers; if you’re not a salon owner, consider talking to your stylist or groomer about arranging to donate clippings from all customers.

In this effort, Matter of Trust has found the hair to be easier to come by than the pantyhose that contains the hair to make the oil booms. They’ll accept nylons with runs, but they do need to be clean, since volunteers have to shove their arms in them to stuff them full of hair. If your job’s dress code requires hose, why not get all the women in your office together and put your ruined nylons to good use, while keeping them out of the landfills?

Even more than pantyhose, though, the group is running short on the volunteer labor to make the booms. If you live near one of their processing centers, consider donating your time and labor.

While the hair remediation efforts for oil spills is getting a lot of attention with the Gulf disaster, many smaller-scale oil spills happen every year, making Matter of Trusts hair-based oil cleanup an ongoing effort. The estimated 2,500,000 gallons of oil that have gushed so far from the offshore well in the Gulf of Mexico is a drop in the bucket compared to the 363 million gallons of oil that seeps into the ecosystem through runoff from streets, driveways and household drains when households improperly dispose of used motor oil from cars, boats and lawnmowers.

The hair booms and hair mats for oil spills are the brainchild of stylist Phil McCrory, who advocates many other reuses for hair at Smartgrow.net.

Check out this video clip of hair booms and mats in action:

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Posted under Beauty Products, Information & Resources, Water Quality, Websites.