In addition to human hair, the team also used other waste fibers, such as wool, pet hair, and even dryer lint. They also developed a felting machine specifically for making 2×2 square rugs.
To date, Matter of Trust has made more than 300,000 oil booms and more than 40,000 felt mats for major disaster relief projects, including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. About half of its supplies are purchased by agencies like the U.S. Department of Defense, Gauthier says, and the other half come from donations, usually to volunteers. Even if just one quart of oil leaks into a water supply, it can contaminate up to 1 million gallons of drinking water.
The standard method for cleaning up oil spills at sea or on land is to use polypropylene booms, but polypropylene is a non-biodegradable plastic and ends up in landfill. It’s important to note that these hair pads themselves are not an ideal solution. The only disposal options are composting or incineration. Both methods have their drawbacks, but the team is working on ways to extract the oils from the hair and create reusable pads. Could gentle soaping, rinsing, and reusing be the answer?
Watch the video from Matter of Trust to see exactly how and what they do, and then decide if you’re sick of it… or not!