Our thinking

One hair at a time

23 October, 2020

Want to be circular and waste-free? Consider asking your hair salon what it does with the 29kg (on average) of hair trimmings that the typical salon gathers up over a year.  

A report from the University of Technology Sydney looks at the different materials which can be used to clean up oil spills. The report compares plastic-based materials commonly used in disaster response teams with more natural resources like human hair and dog hair and concluded that the unconventional but natural resources were just as efficient for soaking up crude oil.

In France, the Coiffeurs Justes (‘Righteous Hair-dressers’) project has been collecting hair scraps from over 3,000 saloons since 2015 to put the waste to good use. The 40 tonnes of hair stored in a warehouse in the south of France is stuffed into nylon stockings and used to absorb the pollution found in ports and harbours. When the oil spill off the coast of Mauritius happened this summer, Mauritians lined up outside their salons and snipped their hair off in the hope of catching some of the oil with their home-made oil catchers.

Do you want to make sure your dog-groomer and hair salon are properly recycling its waste? Why not ask about it and encourage them to partner with Matter of Trust who create hair mats to help clean up oil disasters.

By Marie Guérinet