Hair used to clean oil spill?

[restourceful]

My question is what happens with the mats after they are used? How are they disposed of being saturated with the oil? Sorry if this was answered all ready.

I read that they can be cleaned and reused.

They feed them to oil eating mushrooms amongst other things. Then the remaining hair and the mushrooms are composted.

Really? I never heard of oil eating mushrooms. Which mushrooms are oil eating mushrooms? Am I really that ignorant and everyone knows about oil eating mushrooms? Please tell me I'm really not that ignorant...

[burns_erin]

I read that they can be cleaned and reused.




Really? I never heard of oil eating mushrooms. Which mushrooms are oil eating mushrooms? Am I really that ignorant and everyone knows about oil eating mushrooms? Please tell me I'm really not that ignorant...

I honestly don't have a good source for my that is just what we are being told down here. You know, by the mysterious "they" that absolutely no one has heard first hand. The one time I heard it made sense was when they specifically mentioned oyster mushrooms for mycoremediation.

Not a research article but documentation that they can do it.

http://www.fungi.com/mycotech/mycova.html

And also from personal experience I have found that mushrooms will really grow on top of the oil dirt under a leaking car, just so long as you are not running them over.

As far as I know though it is a fairly new concept and not something most people are familiar with. But for obvious reasons, the topic has come up down here, I mean it has not hit us but all it would take to be disastrous would be a change in weather patterns, or god forbid a hurricane.

[burns_erin]

Ahh, and here is some other stuff...

http://articles.sfgate.com/2007-11-1...mats-motor-oil

http://www.bohemian.com/bohemian/01....over-0802.html

But really, not every area on is using the same methods for cleanup so it can get really confusing.

[Kiraela]

I sent the link to Matter of Trust to a friend who works in a salon down here - she got her boss to sign up with them, and called around to as many salons in Baton Rouge as she could - they're all donating their trimmings now! Hopefully the 'Top hat' as they're calling it, will work.

[restourceful]

Thanks for the links, burns_erin. I guess I really am that ignorant.

[burns_erin]

Thanks for the links, burns_erin. I guess I really am that ignorant.

Nah, like I said, it is not common, and most of my friends and family who are not down here have no clue either, hell a few people I have met around here are pretty cluless too.

[Kat]

Last time my mom went to get her hair cut, I told her to tell the salon about it. Our hairdresser thought it was a great idea, so I hope she convinces the owner... I was thinking of cutting from knee-length back to classic soon anyway, and I will ABSOLUTELY be donating it to Matter of Trust...if the salon hasn't decided to donate by then, I'll sweep it up myself and ship it off. I've been saving the hair I comb off my kitty too, with the intention of trying to spin it into yarn some day, but I think I'll donate it to them instead too, considering our current oil spill situation.

So i guess if anyone ever asks "would you donate your hair?" yes I would...just not to LoL or any of that crap.

ETA: Hey guys, do you think it'd be too creepy if I also saved all the hair I shed when I detangle it and such? Is it too weird to send them "hairballs"? I mean, that's a pretty damn significant amount of hair, really... lol

[littlebabywulf]

My normal salon does this all the time. They save the clippings from the floor and ship them off. I didn't read the whole thread, but I was getting a pixie cut today ( Sorry! I cut 10 inches off a couple of months ago and went to a pixie and donated the tail to Pantene and went in for a trim today; I feel like I shouldn't be on this board even though I know people are OK with short hair ) and my stylist and I were talking about the organization. I guess due to the economy they were getting hard to use in the past; they lost the warehouse they were using or something like that so shipping hair was challenging. But, if people and other salons are responding as they have been to this spill I think it will help them get back on track.

I personally can't come up with anything wrong with this whole plan. It makes me sick that we're so oil dependent and that so much is trashing the Gulf area right now. If people are going to cut their hair, this is a good method of helping fix what we're doing wrong to our planet.

[Igor]

I read about this idea many years ago Someone speculated that since those poor furry animals always gets hit the hardest by an oil spill, it would make sense to use fur or hair to soak up the oil. I hope this time they get it organised enough to matter

[madisenz]

What a fantastic idea!! I wonder if my studio does this? It would be sort of weird to propose the idea though...