“We shampoo because hair collects oil. Why should millions of pounds of absorbant, natural, renewable fibre clippings go to waste every day?” So says Phil McCrory, a stylist from Alabama, who realised that hair was an efficient and abundant material for collecting and containing petroleum spills.
Phil McCrory's invention, the OttiMat
It was when Phil was shampooing an oily head of hair while watching TV coverage on the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and noticed the fur on the Alaskan otters completely soaked with oil that the idea occurred to him; rather than going to landfill, hair clippings could potentially be an effective tool in soaking up oil, thus helping to alleviate environmental disasters associated with oil spills.
He began testing how much petroleum oil he could collect with the hair clippings from the floor of his salon. Phil then invented the The OttiMat - an innovative product that uses recycled human hair to repair and prevent the environmental damage caused by oil spills.
In a home experiment, McCory stuffed 5 pounds of hair he'd cut into a pair of his wife's pantyhose. He tied the ankles of the nylons together to form a ring shaped collection bundle. Then, filling his son's baby pool with water, he poured a gallon of used motor oil in the pool and then dunked the pantyhose. Two minutes later he pulled out the nylons and noticed the water was crystal clear. "Not a trace of oil was left in the water," he said.
Proud donors from Star Weaver Farm Alpacas (Photo by Jillian Ramsey Stern)
In the US alone, 60 million pounds of human hair are disposed of in landfills each year. The OttiMat avoids the use of toxic oil cleaners in water sources by using hair, non-decomposing materials. Human hair is easily available, low cost and hence in real sense, cost effective.
For the last 10 years, Phil and OttiMat have partnered with Matter of Trust – a non-profit organisation, to orchestrate an International Natural Fiber Recycling Mobilization and stimulate green jobs and the textile industry in North America.
"Hair is very efficient at gathering oil, skin oils off your face, oil pollution out of the air, and water, even petroleum oil spills. Hair is absorbent. There are over 370,000 hair salons in the US and each collects about 1 pound of hair a day. Right now, most of that goes into the waste stream, but it should all be made into hairmats," said Phil.
Over 100 volunteers (led by Amanda Bacon) produced these booms at Felix' Fish Camp, Mobile Alabama May 13, 2010.
Matter of Trust is collaborating with thousands of salons throughout the US and abroad, that donate their hair clippings to soak up oil spills. Last year over 2,600 oil spills occurred in the world.
Donors generously pay out of pocket for postage to send their swept up hair clippings to either temporarily donated storage spaces for emergency spills or a warehouse, when space is available. Then, Matter of Trust staff make "booms" by stuffing hair, fur, wastewool, etc. into donated recycled nylons stockings and mesh.
Volunteers at Mississippi Boom B Q, led by Jes Latin, Service Desk Coordinator Vanguard College of Cosmetology, Jean Paul Mitchell Systems Partner School
A huge International Natural Fiber Recycling mobilization is currently taking place to help get hair boom to the Gulf Coast Spill. Matter of Trust has set up 19 donated warehouses in the US that are receiving donated hair from as far afield as the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China and Brazil.
Salons are generously collecting hair clippings into plastic bags, reusing the large boxes they get from shampoo deliveries and mailing the hair to the warehouses where hairmats and booms are being assembled.
As well as for emergency oil spills, the OttiMats are extremely efficient for drip pans during oil changes or under leaky cars, machinery, pipelines, and as booms for storm drains. Hair can also be stuffed into tubes made from recycled nylons and tied together to surround and contain a spill.
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