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The fact they didn't want to renew the patent because they wanted the world to be able to use their idea to help them. Just wow, that's true humanitarian work right there. Bless them all.
I just went to their site to donate my hair and it looks like they aren’t taking many donations right now due to being at capacity at their warehouses which is fantastic news! Thank you Insider for highlighting this company:)
Damn, Ive been growing my hair for 7 years and the pandemic put a wrench in my plan to donate to cancer, seems like it may be a pointless effort at this point.
In 2020 in Mauritius, there was an oil tanker which sunk with on board hundred of tons of oil and all the mauritians united to donate their hair to be able to trap the maximum of fuel spilled in the sea. About 75% of the oils were collected with brooms made with hair and straw. This was incredible
It's disgusting that they allow any ship to stick as much flammable dangerous oil on it as it can take. And we don't even know where the majority of that oil is going cause it sure isn't going to our homes and I believe not even to our cars. Most it's probably stock pilled somewhere safe for the rich to have during a heavy oil shortage when the price will rise like hell
I was a hairstylist for 10 years (2001-2011) and NEVER heard of this!! Soo much hair went in the trash that could have been recycled!!!! What an amazing thing! I hope they figure out how to make it really work long term! This is truly innovative!
Hair can also be used to compost/mulch, I'm surprised by the lack of knowledge...even my brother never throws away hair because it's so beneficial to plant life, and it takes 10 years at least, up to 1000 years to decompose in a landfill :/
Isn’t it amazing to see how he noticed that the hair on the otters absorbed the oil and related it to how we shampoo to get rid of the oil in our hair? This realization of how what’s in front of us can inspire great innovations that help the environment for years to come.
What a great idea and what's even greater is she seems like she's genuinely doing it for the good of the planet, not her bank balance. Also, respect to all the people chopping off their hair to donate.
@@blaqueknight everyone is entitled to earn a living but she seems as though she's more concerned about the planet than how much she's going to earn from it. Big companies only look at the bottom line, do whatever is going to turn the biggest profit no matter what it does to the environment.
I just showed this to my uncle and he's thrilled. He works at a huge repair shop/scrap parts lots not too far from major waterways an the sea, so he has been wanting to find ways to keep all the oil from going into the gutters every time it rains. This is really a neat idea that definitely deserves more funding.
I work in a salon and we use sustainable salons where we can recycle or sustainability dispose all parts of what we use in the salon (foils, hair, chemicals etc). We always collect the hair in a separate bin and send it off. I knew it cleaned oil spills but didn't know the details, so this was so incredibly interesting to watch and see the process. I actually didn't know how effective hair was at soaking up the oil! I feel so proud to belong to a salon that made the choice to be a part of this movement
@@zerotodona1495 Ikr... These comments and this video is making me glad that my hair isn't being stolen and distributed against my knowledge because I cut it myself.
The fact that she decided against renewing the expired patent, shows how dedicated she is in turning this into a mass mobilizing effort, irrespective of boundaries and state lines. We are destroying the environment, and it's admirable to see people rising above petty politics, in order to account for the damage (no matter the scale) that we, as a species, are responsible for (knowingly, or unknowingly).
@@smoothie9931 right. You can't say you're the only one person that can use hair for cleaning up spills. I just think majority of people don't understand patents and don't get more often than not it's some special machine they have that gets the patent and very uncommon for products themselves to be protected
@@geesegoose6174 Okay... build a machine that can sort the hair, clean it, and matt it in a fraction of the time, and then patent that. Pretty much removing all other options, like this one that is charitable by nature.
@@smoothie9931 I wasn't trying to be rude, I do think there's a lot of ways to patenting this and think she should pursue it. I just see a lot of people saying "patent it" and you can't just patent a mat of hair...
Boy this video really is a rollercoaster of emotions. On the one hand people suck and the oil going into the ocean every year is horrifying. But at the same time we have people like this trying to do what they can to help
This is how eco-friendly innovation should be. It might not be the best as synthetic but over time hopefully we can get it close or better than synthetic
In the video small packets of hair are donated. You could argue the environmental impact from the transporation and packaging would be greater than the benefit it could provide
@@luka3174 Then, possibly, they should work out some sort of reusable packaging, or something more environmentally friendly in order to get the full benefit
@@juliasimmons1562 All teenage daydreams not grounded in reality. The reality is nearly everything that is industrialized requires oil to move. The world does not move an inch without petrol. Your solar panels require oil to mine the resources, they require oil to be manufactured, they require oil to be transported. Change "solar panel" to "windmills" and its the same equation. The reality is while these things sound cool, their effectiveness is probably less than a drop in the ocean, no pun intended. The same applies here.
@@TheBanjoShowOfficial Well, yeah, that’s obvious. But even a drop in the ocean is something. Maybe in the future the world will be burned to the ground. Maybe we’ll have better ways of doing things. The first one is more likely, but we can always hope for the latter. I’m not stupid, I know that nothing is entirely clean for the earth.
When there's a spill, oil companies are fined based on how much oil is spilled. If you clean up the oil with mats like this, you can measure, pretty precisely, how much oil is cleaned up. But if the companies spray dispersants (soap), then the oil disperses and is hard to quantify. They pay less in fines.
Didn't you all watch the video through the end? Hair mats like that will absorb water and it will sink with oil in it. If it sink, how the hell they can quantify the spilled oil anyway?
@@ryanbrown982 You depicted it like the oil spilled in the scale of a fish pond. In the massive scale, there is always technical limitation. Furthermore, the oil spill usually happened far away from shore. It adds more technical limitation. There is always reason why experts didn't use this method. They are not stupid, people like you are the one make it too simple without knowing anything.
When she says “clean incineration,” theres no such thing. Burning the oil stored in the hair mats are just going to release all those harmful chemicals into the atmosphere. Instead, they need to use mushrooms - there are certain fungi species that break down oil and recycle the chemicals to create healthy soil. See Paul Stamet’s research. It’s a great initiative to clean up the oil with hair, but the disposal process also needs equal ingenuity. Of course, the most sustainable solution is to stop using oil in the first place.
I'm a hairdresser and I heard of this many years ago. Just the other day a customer of mine asked if the hair clippings served purpose for anything other than trash. I responded with Yes!! They use hair for oil spills...I wish there were recycling bin for hair in hair salons. Keep up the good work guys!!
maybe just ask your boss to start recycling the hair in your salon ... you sound like it has to be some outside force that come in and help you to do a simpel inexpensive change.. its just trash sorting ✌
She's not bonkers....she's aware of ancient knowledge. She's sharing how wool was originally discovered many thousands of years ago. A herder put some sheep hair in their shoe and the agitation, heat, and moisture caused the hair to turn to a piece of wool. We need people to deprogram themselves and get to work cleaning up our messes. You can be like her - pick a project and get to work!
I "love" how it's easier for them to burn/spread chemicals, instead of finding a solution to recover the hair mats 🙄 hope to see more of these eco-friendly solutions being massively supported in the future!
@@NikkiJabs You're right. Since they're fined on how much oil was spilled, and these mats would allow them to know pretty accurately how much was spilled...
@@NikkiJabs No, that means it might be that bad policy is why. If it truly is the fines that made them not want to try this, then that means the fines should either be calculated differently, be scaled down, or not exist if they otherwise would have used this product. After all, it's a pr nightmare for any company not to clean it up, so the fines may not really need to exist.
I like how the guy first said the hair booms were a bad idea because they would sink to the ocean floor and then be impossible to retrieve, and then went on to explain how they used a toxic spray to force a bunch of oil to sink to the ocean floor and then never retrieve it. So what was the problem with the booms again?
Oil is consumed by naturally occurring microbes that normally subsist on stuff like whale falls and natural oil seeps. Instead of a bunch of oil droplets getting digested, you have a giant piece of oil-soaked trash sinking to the bottom (hopefully that rather than floating at a thermo/halocline).
The problem is that oil floats. If your boom sinks it's can not absorb any oil, and it's not a boom anymore. If you install a mile of boom to protect a wetland it's a complete waste of time if it simply sinks.
I am in love with the fact they didn’t renew their patent. I can’t even explain how emotional it makes me feel that they are so caring and for the greater good of the world. I feel disgusted by the oil spills.
I don’t know why nobody thought of it before, this is brilliant. Hair is so notoriously good at holding oil and grease, we have an entire industry dedicated to making soaps that remove it.
Why do idiots who learn something new think it's new? Plenty of tech we use and even depend on existed before fricking Christ. Like the Pulleys, Cement, Language, Numbers, Algebra and Astrology.
This needs to go viral on so many levels. This is the perfect innovation, it is eco friendly and it is not harmful like the chemical and synthetic products.
@@Wayne_R because it's "dificult to recover" unlike the oil on the bothem of the ocean... the company probably judged that chemicals was cheaper. no matter what humans flock to money
Did we not just watch the same video, the long haired scientist type explained why it isn't used in ocean spills. I also looked up the patent date of filling, the "shared idea" has only been shared for a year, so the irony of this whole thing baffles me.
These hair mats could potentially be created into large mats that could be dragged across the water using boats! This would cause the mats not to sink and retrieval could be easy. It might tangle some ocean life though, and would have to be used in smaller chunks in smaller areas, but all good things have some cons to them.
Since they're saturated with petroleum (and hair itself is flammable), maybe they could use it as a fuel source. I know we need to pivot away from petroleum, but might as well use these existing sources of oil as a fuel source rather than drilling for more oil. 🤷🏾♀️ Just a thought.
Contaminated fuel sources can't burn in the highest efficiency generators, but anything that creates heat can be burned in a way that allows some energy to be reclaimed. Clean incineration should always be paired with heat or power generation. Steam or Stirling Engine are good at converting unreliable heat sources to usable energy.
I'm incredibly interested in trying to become a partner with this charity for my local area. These mats were designed to combat oil spills, but my area is a massive automotive sector, and these mats could make for an excellent plastic replacer for the current wash/spill mats we commonly use. Right now they are designed to just funnel gray water into a container for a chem plant to process, but these seem like they'd actually be able to filter the water and trap the chemicals inside, thus allowing the water to stay in the ecosystem. This could actually be a game changer if this charity had the ability to pair up with giants like Ford or GM and start having these types of mats in use at garages and car washes at their dealerships. Edit for additional thoughts: Another interesting idea that could be considered is using activated charcoal inside the mats (particularly in the automotive application hypothesized above), which could offer the ability for the garage/car wash to be able to collect and reuse their water, further driving down the constant demand at water processing plants and driving down the total carbon output in a notoriously high industry, while utilizing a product that is just a byproduct of other industries (activated charcoal just means it's been lit already, and the charred remains got powdered, and charcoal is a common cooking medium even today in commercial applications)
As an environmental emergency responder (especially to oil/fuel/petroleum/hydrocarbon spills), I'd love to see an eco-friendly alternative to the current absorbent booms and pads that are made of polypropylene (a type of plastic called thermoplastic). Once they do their job of absorbing oil/fuel/etc., they are sent to landfills and processed there under state and federal regulations. A eco-friendly version has the potential to go to a facility where they would burn them for energy production INSTEAD of the landfill.
burning hair isn't a better alternative to sticking plastic in landfill, it'll produce a lot of sulphuric gases. Maybe we should look at bioplastics first, not hair
@@Gliccit i’m certain that people have tried to look into bioplastics plenty. Being able to use oil soaked hair as an alternative to other fuel sources that we’re going to burn anyways no matter what is much more renewable.
"Theyd sink to the bottom with the oil and be annoying to retrieve" so instead we sprayed dispersents to actively send the oil to the bottom where we can do literally nothing about it instead. Much smart, very better idea.
No. They would absorb water, and sink. Which means they're no longer absorbing oil, because oil floats. If you install a mile of boom to protect a wetland it's a complete waste of time if it simply sinks.
@@c6q3a24 I think they mean that one of the currently used techniques to clean up oil spills is to spray them with dispersants, which cause the oil to sink to the bottom of the sea. So it's not like the hair mats sinking is actually a big problem, since one of our currently-used techniques does the same thing. Except the dispersants are worse because the oil is free-floating, so it can still cause harm to marine wildlife in a very large area. The mats would keep the oil locked in, so while they might still harm some organisms like bottom feeders who might try to nibble on them, the negative impact would be smaller and would be less widespread.
@@raerohan4241 They literally show hair booms (the tube shaped items), and poly propylene booms in use - and have an independent third party explain how the hair booms were vastly inferior. At the end of the day oil spills are much worse for air breathing animals than they are for purely aquatic animals, so sinking the oil is the lesser of two evils. Oil is not a completely foreign substance - there are lots of oil seeps and tar pits on land, and also in the ocean.
I’m very impressed with this, and I’m not impressed easily. I’m nobody, so me being impressed means very little, but I think this is something that makes sense in a world where very little does.
As a crafter this is amazing! She's essentially using a needled paddle board that would be used the separate materials such as cotton and their seeds or wool to get brambles and crap out. Then they use an gigantic needle felting machine! This is amazing!!!
When I got suggested this video I was so weirded out that I said out loud "how the hell could this work?" Then was totally mind blown when I saw the example she did with the hair mat and the oil. I lose so much hair from stress, thyroid issues, etc so tbh I might start donating my hair to this business, at least it'll give it use instead of filling up my trash cans.
@@niBBunn the God of Abraham is not in Islam. Look at its beginning. The God of Abraham said who his will followed. It goes Abraham to Issac then Jacob, and that path leads you to Jesus Christ. Islam steams from the path of Ishmael, Abraham's illegitimate son, whom God explicitly stated did not have his will. Everything after this point in Islam is to excuse disobeying God's direct order. God laid out a direct path, and Islam stepped off it at the very first opportunity. They cannot claim the God of Abraham. Their God is the devil in disguise. Jesus Christ is Lord.
I remember back in elementary when the Guimaras Oil Spill in the Philippines happened (2006) we learned in science class different ways to absorb oil spill, two memorable techniques were using ash and fiber (such as hair). Tons of hair donations happened during that time to help clean the oil spill, mostly coming from barber shops.
I'm just glad the Philippines was willing to be eco friendly to clean after that oil spill. Other countries could have done something similar it makes me sad they don't do something like this as often..
@@bmona7550 grow up dude no one cares about your eco friendly nonsense they had a issue and worked together as a group to solve it it was there only option and it worked so stop being ignorant not everyone is as brainwashed as you
There's a common fungus that breaks down oil very effectively and provides nutrients for plants to grow. Maybe the used mats could be covered outside in the fungus (it's a type that already exists all over earth so it won't hurt) and be broken down.
@@fionafiona1146 that's what I mean it's not an invasive fungus it already exists all over earth. I watched the documentary about fungus and mushrooms very interesting.
You’re correct! Certain strains of oyster mushrooms, like aspergillus, have been found to be able to “eat” plastic, petroleum, and even nuclear waste. In regards to petroleum, mycelium (mushroom “roots” essentially) eats the oil, grows mushrooms on it, and the mushrooms thrive and produce spores. The spores attract birds and insects, who then bring seeds and such from land and, long story short, island ecosystems begin to grow on the oil spill. You should look up Paul Stamets’ Ted talk. The reason this isn’t being used really at all is because mycology is a fairly new branch of science, and is severely underfunded. The only people really studying this are citizen scientists who don’t have the laboratories and equipment needed to get this ball rolling on a larger scale. The government won’t fund these studies because fungi doesn’t decompose quickly, and because decomposition time varies between species. I find this ridiculous, as oysters have been found to begin to degrade plastic (which can take decades or even centuries to decompose) within thirty days. Sorry for the novel, I’m just passionate about this. Oyster mycelium could be the eco-friendly way to clean up our oceans and landfills. I think you pose a very interesting thought too. We could use hair to suck up the oil quickly and remove it from harming more marine life, and then use fungi to break that oil down and get rid of it. Lastly, yes, oysters are very common and actually one of the easiest mushrooms to grow, which makes it all the more enticing to start researching this more.
@@savannai9168 Again, bad government policy is the culprit. I heard people also say BP decided not to use the hair mats possibly because apparently oils spills are fined per the amount of oil spilt, so dispersants make it harder to calculate. If that's truly why bp didn't use the hair mats, then that means either the fines are too high and need to be scaled down, they need to be calculated differently, or they shouldn't exist if the company otherwise would have chosen to use the hair mats. After all, it's a pr nightmare for them not to cleanup their mess, so they would do it anyway. Remember a BP exec reached out to her, not the other way around, and the executives are rewarded for things like saving the company's reputation. This means they had every natural reason, absent the government, to use the best solution.
I didn’t know this was possible until the salon I worked at told me we recycled fallen hair. I didn’t know how that was possible until they told me about this! it’s actually so cool.
i did a science project on this back in 2019 and it spanned all the way through to 2021 !! one of my favorite science projects to do , and it’s a very interesting subject overall . i had a lot of fun with it and learned a lot of useful information that can be used in future years !! both human hair and dog hair is VERY efficient for oil spill clean ups and it’s WAY more economically friendly !! i even contacted matter of trust and worked with them on my project for a little while :) it’s a wonderful and very interesting topic , and i encourage everyone to get the word about about the use of human hair for cleaning oil spills , and to look into this topic more in-depth ! edit- i used real crude oil for this project , too , so it really works !!!
Not when you consider these petroleum companies likely make plastic they use, and they dont have to pay distribution. I appreciate you looking into this, but I'm quite sure your project was exactly representative.
me and my mom donate our hair all the time one time my mom asked my hair so gray and dead what they even do with it anyway. and the salon told us about this. so donating her hair means if it's good quality it gets to be made into a beautiful wig for somebody. and if her hair isn't up to wig quality it can be used for other great things like this. makes me happy to know I can make a difference with just some hair
We need more people like her in this world. We need to support this type of thinking and using renewable materials. Thank you for bringing this into the spotlight and running this story. We need to change the world and the way we do things.
I work in the greater recycling industry and we have a huge bra inde ad NIMBY problem that is not going to ever go away as long as we have the idiotic authoritarian fear-mongering nut job political left fake feel-good agendas in play. Everyone is all for recycling and positive reuse, UNTIL you want to set up facilities to do the actual work legally and under safe controlled condtions. Then it's a total bra inde ad eco tar d zombie world, where everyone thinks they know more about what you do than you do as the proven expert trying to fix the actual problem, and insane impossible what-ifs built on nothing real are the only thing they want to discuss and you will never get approval until you have addressed them, which is impossible because they are not even based in reality.
You can collect oil by using wood powder too. When my father was a little kid, he noticed a lot of this wood powder near a wood work place, and he also realised how much oil could be collected by it. I don't know if anyone has used the idea yet, but seemed like a cool thing so shared.
@@ImTavi not sure how youd go about pouring sawdust on the ocean and recollecting it, oil cleanups are actually being delayed by having employees drive through the spill using boats and further spreading/breaking it down making it harder to clean up. Many videos regarding this, I don’t think oil will be cleaned up anytime soon, doesnt seem to be some of their intentions.
I once saw a documentary about a similar thing. A swiss guy a long time ago would experiment every day after work and he found a mixture of different rocks that could neutralise the oil but he could not find anyone to care about it a the time. Apparently there's also a lot of money in the oil spills.
Thanks for all the efforts in cleaning the environment as well as inspiring people to make contribution, which matters most from my point of view. Everyone in the world is born with kindness. Most of us wanna help people but we just don't know where to start. Your story definitely encourages me and the other to HELP OTHERS. Not only by donating hair but by any other means. Let's love environment. Love each other.
I remember when the big BP oil spill happened, I was working as a receptionist at a hair salon and we were told to keep the garbage and hair separate (otherwise put together) because we were donating the cut hair to help clean up the spill. Until this video popped up, I kinda forgot about that! I think that is so amazing to see how that works, and how well!
I've been growing my hair for a couple years to get a Lara Croft braid, I KNOW I'm not gonna keep it that length for too long. I'm so happy to have found these people doing this great thing. I dont trust most hair company's after finding out a lot of them typically make actual store bought wings and rairly actually donate the hair to people in need. THIS is something I can get behind.
Hair longer than shoulder length irritates me immensely so I gave up on wanting to pursue the Lara Croft braid, but I'm so happy someone out there is doing it! ♥ Good luck with that, and also with finding a legitimate place to donate to if you do follow through with that as well! :)
The guy who thought of this is a genius. And yet it's so obvious because we always see oil getting caught in the hair of these sea mammals. I'm honestly willing to bet that feathers can also clean up oil spills just as effectively
@@mathewparr1176 the farther the information spreads the better, no matter how it happens. And it’s being put to use, so, who cares if they are “glory seekers” or not?
@@mathewparr1176 I mean it says dude in the US did it in 89. You say you heard about it in the 90s, how do you know the Australian wasn’t copying? Either way its a good idea regardless and very well could of been a very old idea, either copied or re-realized. The fact that this company is non-profit and open source doesn’t sound much like “glory seeking“ though..
Unrelated to their business, but damn it's sickening to know there's people out there that are okay with what harm they do to the planet and expect kind people, such as matteroftrust, to clean up the messes for them. Thanks for all you do!
I think it’s cute that we try to clean up large oil spills caused by massive corporations but we never talk about holding the owners and CEOs of these corporations accountable with huge fines and their lives. Waste dumping and oil spills should not only be prosecuted for fences but they should be followed up with heavy fines because the reason why oil pollution is so prevalent is not because it’s not preventable, it’s because it’s cheaper to deal with the consequences than to prevent pollution.
5:28 So let me get this straight: The hair boons weren't used because they would sink and take the oil to the ocean floor - so instead they used chemicals that make the oil sink to the ocean floor? Sounds logical.
I've been following their Hair Boom process since the beginning & I must say I am so proud of the progress! I'd also like to point out that although majority of it has been cleaned up, we are still dealing with the effects & mass devastation from the BP Oil Spill down here in Louisiana TO THIS VERY DAY! It's certainly not spoken of the way it should be but as a native Louisianian born & raised here my whole life, I can say that I wish someone had the guts to speak up publicly on the issues we are dealing with still! BP has paid out billions & millions more to keep people hush hush & it's truly unbelievable because really no body except us Louisiana folks know about the issues! I can only hope & pray someday soon someone will step up & speak up!
Also, Society: "We want everything recycled no matter the costs." Society: " How dare you try build a recycling center in my area, we don't want that type of thing here!"
"the buoys would take the oil and sink and make recovery more difficult" which would be bad. but then the actual clean up effort is using chemicals to push the oil....to the bottom of the ocean where it stays, which is....better? This is an incredible innovation, I hope it gets utilized more!
@@bowdencable7094 how does your comment have anything to do with what I said? Do you think that the sea is constantly mixing all the way from the ocean floor so that eventually the hair mats will rise to the surface? Your comment makes no sense at all.
Yeah I didn't understand that either. Maybe they decided it was better to sink them after they'd already decided to use the plastic ones? Still sounds silly though..
Im just guessing here, but I would think the hairmats sinking with the oil quite majorly interrupts the local ecosystem with a lack of light and covering parts of the ocean floor and the noncovered crude oil in a more tangible way than the very small bubbles of oil and solvent (think dish soap in large scale) would, despite the chemical's impact on nature. The usage of hairmats would also need a more hands on approach than simply adding the chemicals into the water and could be used in a wider virarity than the pickup would need. When possible the alternative of using a plastic derivative was used, to make as small impact on the envoirment as possible and avoid sinking and littering the ocean floor with hair that's foreign the ecosystem. I love the idea and how it may be implemented but it seems to be a bit further into the future to actually use them in the enviorment on a large scale, aa this would take special mashines that are not profitable or even possible to produce at the moment due to the small scale of operation and the fact that all mats dont have the same scale, making process of picking the mats up when they start to sink difficult.
I love this so much! I hate it when the environment gets ruined and it can be cleaned up so .. peacefully and without more waste being made I've been losing my chunks of my hair for almost a year now and this makes me feel better mentally and that even if I lose my hair, I could donate it to these people to help the environment PLEASE KEEP UP THE WORK
I'm sorry to hear that you are losing your hair Dahlia. May you be healed & may you live a long happy life with radiant health. 🙏💗🤗🌞🌬🌊🌈❤ Sending you a healing blanket of love and a rainbow of protection. 🌈❤ Be well.
Sir Nelson, I'm sorry that you are hurting too. May you find peace and love and happiness. May all negative energies that you are experiencing return to their source as love and light. Namaste.
This is purely amazing - as a long haired blonde, I am constantly pulling out soo much hair from my hairbrush and also when in the shower. Super disappointed there is no link to the direct website of the company in the description!!!
I've always believed that adding more volume of more toxic chemicals to the already high volume of toxic chemicals in a biosphere like the ocean was a bad idea. But out of sight out of mind is cheaper than actually being responsible about it. If the regulators witheld drilling licences until this was properly cleaned up, the oil companies would spare no time or expense to find a way. Greed is disgraceful!
the problem with international waters is that a single country can't just implement it. moreover, lobbyists will stop at no cost to prevent that from happening
this is honestly genius and the idea should definitely be explored more!! there is a continuous source of raw supply that doesn’t require more wasting of resources to produce (e.g. salons have piles and piles of hair in their shops everyday and they all just get swept up and thrown away!! a program can be set up for them to receive the hair cut off from their customers!) and the product itself is biodegradable as hair do breakdown over time with the help of natural microorganisms and insects that break down the keratin and feed on it. If not, I’m sure these oil-soaked mats could serve a different yet equally smart use!! It’s definitely time to take care of our planet🥺
The amount of resources required to ship all of this hair around the globe does have an impact as well. The scientist also said that hair soaks up water and causes it to sink with the oil. This has been tried in an actual oil.spill and it didn't work out. They used plastic that already existed to clean it up. Most products we use are made of plastic. If you want to actually impose change, be conscious of the products you buy and how they are made, from start to finish. This includes how the minerals are mined, what types of machines are used. You'll find oil is used everywhere and it's going to take more than human hair to change our economy and lifestyle across the planet to move us away from using oil for literally everything. It's been 50 years since plastic really started taking off, it didn't just happen over night. Edit: think about how oil has been a major part of your life. If it never existed life would not have been as easy or cost effective for parents to have kids. Many young people of today may not have even been born if it weren't for how oil changed the lives of parents. Greta Thunberg is from Norway and her entire existence was made possible because Norway was one of the biggest oil nations on the planet. So don't blame the adults for this mess, were all responsible for it and if you don't think you are, look at what you are holding in your hand right now... Yep, OIL.
@@TBonerton thank you for shedding light on this issue, I didn't actually thought that far out 😲 I have always been very environmentally conscious and i do think you're correct in emphasizing the importance of reducing, as i do also think that this should be prioritized before reusing and recycling, so its great to meet another mind who think alike and i hope you continue educating others out there! :D
@@ode8119 I grew up in the 80s and 90s when recycling was a pipe dream. Reduce, reuse, recycle was the mantra we heard in TV ads, but it was just starting out. Recycling somehow took over, but no one reduced or reused. If anything we started using more because things can be "recycled". Then we find out that "recycling" was just shipping more crap across the planet to less fortunate countries and they essentially just polluted the environment further by burning a lot of it or dumping it in the water. Now we are finding out that recycling is a false pretense, but it's almost too late. We do need to reduce and reuse, but I get laughed at when I bring food in an old sour cream container instead of a brand new SnapLok. Too many people are worried about getting rich off crypto currency, which is the biggest waste of energy and most of it is generated by China who still use coal. There is no such thing as green energy when you factor in all the minerals that are required. PS, help spread the word. Politicians are forcing a green energy transition which forces us to use more rare minerals and pollute the planet even more. It's all a politicians dream with very little science to back it up.
@@TBonerton furreals! the possibility of recycling shouldn't be an excuse for us to justify our indulgence in overconsumption but this is exactly what many are doing, unfortunately 😞
This is absolutely astonishing. This is amazing and life changing. why isn’t this so much bigger? Why isn’t this being put out to everyone in this world and pushed like plastics and everything else is!!! I hope it starts to be bigger now!! This is a good example of we produce naturally things that could resolve 90% of the worlds problems today. It’s just about getting that idea out there and getting it past the government and what not. This is literally so amazing and organic and not harmful to everything and everyone.. It needs to be everywhere asap and I can’t wait for it to be!!
The problem is that the hair mats start to sink. Oil is floating on water. So unfortunately it can’t really absorb that much oil . And the oil that is absorbed will sink to the bottom of the ocean with these mats.
@@ducklingscap897 couldn’t they just attach it to something so it could get out the oil in the water like how a net for a pool gets out dirt and then take it back out and discard it? I’m confused on why they would just throw the mats in water and then leave it lol
@@girlbye4233 same here, I was also like “why do they just throw it and leave it though?” Nets would be a good idea, they could do it with boats and retrieve it
@@zythe9876 trash also doesn't smell nice and are still burnt. Actually, if it was a common occurance to clean oceans like that, would it be suitable to use it instead of oil/coal/gas to make energy/warmth?
@@ritaerror7829 god there has to be something wrong with you. i was just saying that it probably would smell bad and you're assuming that i thought that hair wouldn't be a good alternative at all.
The deepwater horizon oil spill was extremely bad for the environment, and things like this are great for future scenarios, but might not be that effective in an accident of that magnitude. Also sad to this day that BP declined help from Norway when we offered to send industrial cleanup equipment made for oil spills that would help massively... (We did help stop the leak tho)
Yes but they were discussing how anyone can use this on their shore-lines, and this will stop the argument of using of dispersants. The dispersants were used because they felt the public impact of seeing oil spillage on shore was more harmful than having the oil in the bottom of the ocean. If there was hair-bags on the shores of some beaches, it would catch a lot more oil than what got buried away at reefs. There is still an environmental impact in making those industrial cleanup equipment, the making of the hair-mats is very rudimentary, easy but not its not as durable or reusable, and there is still a concern in how to get rid of the used hairs in a eco-friendly matter. Also the hair will sink to the bottom of the sea after catching enough oil, so throwing them around aimlessly is also not a solution.
The hair salon i work at; we have a hair bin where we collect the hair and the waste collection company grab and then send off the hair to help assist with this cause. It's amazing to see the results from a small amount of effort.
That's fantastic! I own a pet grooming salon, and I looked into donating our fur clippings, but the shipping costs were unfortunately much too prohibitive. I'd love to find an alternative to adding bags of hair to the landfills every week!
@@iii9591 i mean i got idea without seeing anywhere (on my own while applying oil in my hair), then i researched and came to know people got this idea earlier than me 😂
I recall some years back a couple of young men came up with an oil absorbing powder, kind of like the floor sweeping stuff you spread to keep dust down. They put some into a tank of oil and water and it just collected or drew the oil to it like a magnet and left the water totally clean. I recall the host of the show looked at them and said, "You guys just won the lottery with this invention." That was the last I ever heard of it. I can't recall which show or host it was.
Everyone at the time was so angry with BP including myself. Now I'm just angry at human beings in general for failing to recognize how much we individually contribute to these types or problems. If you drive a car, or use any product derived from petroleum- you're part of the problem. And that makes us all culpable. We're all responsible.
I have no choice but to shave my head every couple months I'd be more than happy to donate my hair for this I'm sure there's a lot of other people out there that would be more than willing to help for this....
@@Sarah-ic4yu Cancer unfortunately but please don't worry I'll be ok. I've had this problem since gread 8 when I first started getting treatments it's not a big deal but at least I would fell better about my hair being used for good.
@@MaxS535 Women not guy 🤣 but it does work out cheaper on alot of things that's for sure but as a women I would love to have long hair but the medical treatments I get makes my hair break off so it's just easier to shave it than cry every morning finding my hair on my pillow...
This shows a really creative way to clean up oil spills using human hair, which is something most people wouldn’t think of. It's surprising how much oil hair can absorb, and yet some big oil companies still prefer using synthetic materials like plastic-based mats, which aren't as eco-friendly. It makes you wonder why they don't choose the more natural option, especially since the hair mats could be composted afterward. The fact that so many people donated hair during the BP oil spill shows how communities are willing to help, but it's disappointing that some companies didn’t fully embrace this solution. It seems like profit and convenience often win over long-term environmental benefits
It’s not that simple it will take a long time to replace and restructure companies and industries that rely on oil. And also you have to deal with other countries and nations.
@@maxburrill6192 though solar power Han only go so far and nuclear power is getting more common. Though gasoline is used to power lots of vehicles. Electric cars are very new Plus certain countries just aren’t rich enough to get clean power.
When I was a little kid I cut off all my hair with safety scissors, in typical little kid fashion, & my mom ended up donating the hair to this organisation. This was such a nice video to see. Made me smile🥲
Genius, if only all the salons would comply with this, we could clean up a whole ocean using this method as ot is good for the environment too! Kudos to these people.
The NOAA: "The hair mats became waterlogged and sunk making retrieval very difficult" Also the NOAA: "The oil being chemically sunk to the bottom of the ocean is considered a 'net environmental benefit'"
The NOAA guy didnt say that the NOAA considered it a net environmental benefit, he said the companies/ they claimed it was less bad than washing on shorelines and hence a 'net benefit'. He didnt seem to agree with it. Also he was only comparing the hair mats to the poly mats. Its a totally different clip from what he was saying about the companies claiming net benefit.
@@ddawg3230 Yes, I understand he wasn't endorsing the idea of chemically sinking the oil. However, given that they would have had operational authority I would think the less of two evils would be preferred. The oil will still be there, waiting to leech into the water, but with the hair mats at least they're natural and not just adding more chemicals to persist in the environment
@@Dysiode It sounds like they use poly mats where they operate themselves, and have an issue with banning companies from using the chemical method. From that little snippet we saw, it just seemed like he was advocating for poly mats instead of either hair mats or chemical spray.
Mushrooms can help the decay process and they have been shown to filter/ clean oil. I wonder if that would help breakdown the hair after it's soaked up the oil
I love this. I used to leave out my hair from the brush on my balcony and the birds would grab it for nests lol. I know that's weird but one day the idea came into my head and then I watched a bird grab it and was so excited!
Warning! That can kill birds! Human hair is so strong and sharp it can trap birds if wrapped around them. Id recommend searching a video on it. Im sure you didnt know that when doing it but please be aware.
@@why_on_earth1100 exactly, same with hair from horses‘ manes and tails and even long dog hair or long-staple sheep wool. Only very short hair is harmless and helpful.
@@why_on_earth1100 then they shouldn't grab it, my hair is gonna get in the environment naturally. If birds can't determine what nesting materials are suitable that's their problem and they should adapt.
@@thugpug4392 Or, knowing that it’s bad, you can revise your behavior to make sure it won’t do harm. If you even were doing this in the first place (actively putting specifically long hair out to be taken). It’s not like birds have microscopes to be able to examine the differences between human hairs and other fibers that might be safer to use. Nor do they have many ways to feel things with a general cursory degree of detail like we can with our fingers. Even if they could ‘adapt’, it’s unlikely to happen for a very long time through evolution, and it wouldn’t be very likely in the first place unless vast numbers of people did put the birds in this situation where they need to evolve to survive. It’s probably sparse enough of an occurrence that it won’t affect a terribly significant number of birds negatively.
This taught me a lesson of how hair is eco-friendly for absorbing oil spills but it also taught me I need to be using even more oil in my 4C hair so it doesn't become brittle and break off!! 👁👄👁
Wow, this is amazing! With almost 8 billion people on earth we can solve some of the problems we create. It still makes me sick when I see the damage we did to the gulf coast. And just because we don't see it anymore doesn't mean it's gone. All that oil is still there at the bottom of the ocean.
@@Simonstoster because they profit from the cleanup selling the cleanups in a lot of cases. Lots of big industry is just a racket and theres plenty of examples.
@@nolives but the sinking hair would be gone and the floating polypropylene has to be disposed of, which is much more expensive. Still, they prefer the later. Why?
This is awesome, the fact that they can turn something that is pure waste into a useful industrial material is so cool. Every barbershop should be sending their garbage clippings to this company
I never would've thought of HUMAN hair being used for cleaning up ANYTHING! 🤣 God bless their brilliance! This is what you call thinking outside of the box!
@@Anon-jf4el buddy, you couldn't be more wrong. You need him so much you can't even understand. Everyone needs Jesus Christ. Most just never do the serious self healing Jesus taught. There's reasons why Faith requires actions.
@@jamesmayle3787 This isn’t the place for this kind of discussion and no one here is going to have a “come to Jesus moment” because you typed this here. I myself am a Christian but I know and realize that this isn’t the platform for witnessing to people who may or may not want Jesus in their life. ✌🏻
That demo she did made me go "Woah!" Holy crap. Maybe I'm too used to overselling and under delivering products but wow, they were not joking that it works. I've never heard of this though, I wonder how well known it is? Doubt my go to barber place knows about this. It's weird but I don't think it's gross tho, or more gross than something soaked in oil is anyway.
I've heard of this oil spilling news before, and I remember very well that the reporter did mention something about an effort of using hair to collect oils, now a decade later in this video I finally understand what exactly happen, I live in southeast asia so yea I think it's considered a huge disaster back then to make it to my mainstream media
@@giantalaskanworm719 I live in southern Alabama, less than ten miles from the gulf of Mexico. The oil spill was a HUGE ordeal. Still to this day, over a decade later, the beaches aren't the same color, or texture. The top layer is manufactured sand that's trucked in and spread out over night so it appears to be the same, but dig down a few inches, or go check it out immediately after a bad storm, and you'll see the thick sheen of oil, and it you dare pick up the sand you'll find it's significantly heavier and tackier than it used to be/than the manufactured sand is. BP did an AWFUL job of cleaning up, and the vast majority of the fines they paid did not get used towards truly cleaning it up. They did a halfway decent job of paying for the locals who's jobs and health were negatively impacted, but only in the beginning. If you have long term health issues from it, you've gotta fight tooth and nail for the help. Which a LOT of people got sick from it, and the media just sorta swept it away. It was a huge ordeal at first. But it's never mentioned now, and it's something that those of us who live along the coast are forever changed by.
Hair is hydrophobic and so is oil. Because water can't get into the hairstrand, the oil quickly attaches itself to the hairstrand in an attempt to get away from the water. It's how seabum stays on the hair, it can be pretty good as a finishing step to your hairstyles as well.
It's a great natural product, so I'm glad someone has found a use for it. Laying hair mats on beaches when there's an oil spill, seems like a brilliant idea.
This is so cool! I applaud her and all the ppl helping. What a great idea! She seem like she genuinely cares for the betterment of this planet! I am so glad ppl like her exist!🥰
When the MV Wakashio oil spill happened on the shores of Mauritius in July 2020, due to lack of resources in an emergency, the Mauritians were donating their hair. Hair salons around the island were offering free and discounted hair cuts in order to donate the trimmings to clean-up efforts. Volunteers stuff the hair into stockings and use it to both corral the oil, preventing its spread, and absorb it from the water.
Absolutely amazing work you're doing. Excellent idea! I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this or not but the inside of classic Volkswagen seats are mat like covers made of woven horse hair that are placed over the springs used to cushion the seats. That's why when you get in an old vw, it has that special kind of funky smell which I've grown to love. I act took mine apart to fix it and discovered this.
Why hasnt this been made as a huge news story but more than that made into a real movement that literally the world, each and every person who cuts their hair can help save so much in this world. Theres always a way to solve a problem but people need to hear about it so problem solving can be made at a world wide level especially with the patent being ended like that made me cheer even more for this incredible opportunity to help the world. It's just hair but with all those animals getting shaved regularly why waste it when it can really be utilized.
This was basically my 10th grade science project. I used nylon to hold my hair mats, but same concept. It was crazy to just toss it into a bucket of water/oil and watch the oil disappear.
One year during the science fair I made fish out of paper, decorated their scales and stapled two ends together and filled them with cotton, hung them up in translucent nylon threads and hung them all from the top of a cardboard and the put a saran wrap plastic on top....and put oil on them, on top of the plastic. Lol. This was to represent oil spills in the ocean. They can just use machines to suck up all the oil and spit back the filtered water through the other end. Period.
This is incredible !! Oil companies have to get on this Also that guy talking about using chemicals to get rid of the oil spill as being better than trying to find a way to keep the hair mats floating is crazy
Attach the mats together end to end. Release them to contain the oil and absorb it then they get returned to the ship being pulled on a conveyer belt situation through press rollers to squeeze oil into large containers. Then cleaned oil free mats go out again...repeat. With the mat tech must come the specific vessel to achieve the mat release, retrieval, and return process...that's what's missing.
Dear Whitelight--I set out to find you and find you I did! I was going to say just those points. Someone had to have had the same ideas as me for recycling. If we can ship shale from Canada to tejas for extraction and refining, surely we can retrieve the very same oil and then clean the mats to let them live another day--or more!! Shalom.
I love everything about this! My mom had wanted to donate her hair to help people with cancer get free wigs. She grew her hair for so long to donate. Once she cut it, she couldn't find anyone who wanted it because she had started to go gray. She is a natural red head and her silver streaks looked more like highlights that gray, and it was virgin hair. She finally found a charity, I think thru Pantene, but I love this idea even more. It wouldn't matter if it's color treated, gray, and it seems to be a super clean technology used to help animals and environments. Yall are doing awesome work!
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Thanks so much!
ya but were would they get all this hair from EVery Barber shop in the world to make a reserve supply?
How and where can I donate my hair?
@@jonjesterdonate your hair to a cancer society !
The fact they didn't want to renew the patent because they wanted the world to be able to use their idea to help them. Just wow, that's true humanitarian work right there. Bless them all.
Reminds me of telsa.
@@matthewallen2273 how
@@cristal6636 I think they meant tesla the person not the company
@@matthewallen2273 tesla the company is the exact opposite of this even though they make electric cars ,i hope ur talking about nikola tesla
Nikolai Tesla! The man!
I just went to their site to donate my hair and it looks like they aren’t taking many donations right now due to being at capacity at their warehouses which is fantastic news! Thank you Insider for highlighting this company:)
Thabk you! How much would you need to donate, when they open back up again? Does it matter how little or much?
Can I ask for their website pleasee
That IS fantastic news. Thanks for the share!
@@ultraviolet9677 I will look for it. I started bagging up some but if they don't need donations for a long time, I can compost what I have for now.
Damn, Ive been growing my hair for 7 years and the pandemic put a wrench in my plan to donate to cancer, seems like it may be a pointless effort at this point.
My jaw dropped when I saw how hair sucked the oil. Kudos for innovation
Innovation?
its not the same in sea water ....
@Calix still took the oil there
@@breakingoutin2212 Obviously 🙄 it literally says in the video “to the MASSES” no need to point it out
It makes sense fur and hair must hold oils from the skin, becouse of this we shampoo and clean our hair
In 2020 in Mauritius, there was an oil tanker which sunk with on board hundred of tons of oil and all the mauritians united to donate their hair to be able to trap the maximum of fuel spilled in the sea. About 75% of the oils were collected with brooms made with hair and straw. This was incredible
Awesome,i came to know after reading this
It's disgusting that they allow any ship to stick as much flammable dangerous oil on it as it can take.
And we don't even know where the majority of that oil is going cause it sure isn't going to our homes and I believe not even to our cars.
Most it's probably stock pilled somewhere safe for the rich to have during a heavy oil shortage when the price will rise like hell
booms*
I was a hairstylist for 10 years (2001-2011) and NEVER heard of this!! Soo much hair went in the trash that could have been recycled!!!! What an amazing thing! I hope they figure out how to make it really work long term! This is truly innovative!
Hair can also be used to compost/mulch, I'm surprised by the lack of knowledge...even my brother never throws away hair because it's so beneficial to plant life, and it takes 10 years at least, up to 1000 years to decompose in a landfill :/
@@samaraisnt yes like it's dry and organic and nicely complementing food waste
@@samaraisnt well is not something common that people would talk about.
@Don K wow! Did her clients know that????
@Don K Did she get their consent?
Isn’t it amazing to see how he noticed that the hair on the otters absorbed the oil and related it to how we shampoo to get rid of the oil in our hair? This realization of how what’s in front of us can inspire great innovations that help the environment for years to come.
>great innovations
meanwhile some grand-grand-grand-grand...-grand ascensor using wool rag to clean his cave
We need more genius people to notice even the smallest simplest of things can help the world. Bless them.
Anyone who's been to any of the Mediterranean countries can see how much grease that hair can mop up.
@@sw3783 No it wasn't. People have been recycling for centuries. We used to have rag and bone men who will buy used junk and do just that.
Where we gonna dump the soaked up oil?
What a great idea and what's even greater is she seems like she's genuinely doing it for the good of the planet, not her bank balance. Also, respect to all the people chopping off their hair to donate.
I shed so much 😭 can we donate regular shedded hair?
@@Danny-be1ex they said they receive animal shedded hair, so yes lol
What's wrong with doing something for her bank balance? There is a cost to living. It's not free.
@@blaqueknight everyone is entitled to earn a living but she seems as though she's more concerned about the planet than how much she's going to earn from it. Big companies only look at the bottom line, do whatever is going to turn the biggest profit no matter what it does to the environment.
@@laernulienlaernulienlaernu8953 ok I understand you
"safer at the bottom of the ocean than on shorelines" this is the definition of sweeping a problem under the rug.
Under the sea. Sebastian must be hurting right now
Gee... how much wit and time did you spend coming up with that pun? Congratulations, very witty. Clap, clap.
This made me soo mad those fuckin companies SUCK and don't gaf about ppl or the environment.
Yeah it sucks thst like everything else it's just shifting the problem, but it's the intention that matters
They'd rather use chemicals to make the oil sink than the hair mats, what!
I just showed this to my uncle and he's thrilled. He works at a huge repair shop/scrap parts lots not too far from major waterways an the sea, so he has been wanting to find ways to keep all the oil from going into the gutters every time it rains. This is really a neat idea that definitely deserves more funding.
What's better is he can partner up with a local barber shop so that they don't have to trouble themselves with hait disposal!
Good thing hair will rot eventually
Unkle ? A word for uncle's ankle?
@@ssaj22 all knowing, not an asshole? a phrase for you?
@@erikawwad7653 not familiar. But I'm an expert on recognizability and unrecognizable.
I work in a salon and we use sustainable salons where we can recycle or sustainability dispose all parts of what we use in the salon (foils, hair, chemicals etc). We always collect the hair in a separate bin and send it off. I knew it cleaned oil spills but didn't know the details, so this was so incredibly interesting to watch and see the process. I actually didn't know how effective hair was at soaking up the oil! I feel so proud to belong to a salon that made the choice to be a part of this movement
This is why I just cut my hair myself…. You never know what people do with your hair.
@@zerotodona1495 Ikr... These comments and this video is making me glad that my hair isn't being stolen and distributed against my knowledge because I cut it myself.
@@zerotodona1495 all of our clients know haha it isn't a secret, they choose to book with us with the knowledge of us recycling their hair
@@milalovesmae hair thief
@@-_.-._- what are you gunna do with your cut hair? You think your use is more important??
The fact that she decided against renewing the expired patent, shows how dedicated she is in turning this into a mass mobilizing effort, irrespective of boundaries and state lines. We are destroying the environment, and it's admirable to see people rising above petty politics, in order to account for the damage (no matter the scale) that we, as a species, are responsible for (knowingly, or unknowingly).
Just a thought on that... couldn't someone else adopt this project, and then just put their own patent on it? Don't see what would stop them.
@@smoothie9931 right. You can't say you're the only one person that can use hair for cleaning up spills. I just think majority of people don't understand patents and don't get more often than not it's some special machine they have that gets the patent and very uncommon for products themselves to be protected
@@geesegoose6174 Okay... build a machine that can sort the hair, clean it, and matt it in a fraction of the time, and then patent that. Pretty much removing all other options, like this one that is charitable by nature.
@@smoothie9931 I wasn't trying to be rude, I do think there's a lot of ways to patenting this and think she should pursue it. I just see a lot of people saying "patent it" and you can't just patent a mat of hair...
@@geesegoose6174 oh sorry ;_; I wasn't trying to be rude either
Boy this video really is a rollercoaster of emotions. On the one hand people suck and the oil going into the ocean every year is horrifying. But at the same time we have people like this trying to do what they can to help
This is how eco-friendly innovation should be. It might not be the best as synthetic but over time hopefully we can get it close or better than synthetic
It’s still not effective
@@Carpe_Diem_XCIII How is it not effective? lol
@@Carpe_Diem_XCIII but its working? Explain your point, Florida Man
@@SuWoopSparrow I'm guessing probably, mass produce as the key word.
if we can extract hair from water sewage from bath, then it could be cyclical, not just "producing more" for the sake or recycle etc.
What’s so wonderful about these is that there will never be a shortage. Humans grow hair naturally, and some grow it back really quickly.
In the video small packets of hair are donated. You could argue the environmental impact from the transporation and packaging would be greater than the benefit it could provide
@@luka3174 Then, possibly, they should work out some sort of reusable packaging, or something more environmentally friendly in order to get the full benefit
@@juliasimmons1562 All teenage daydreams not grounded in reality. The reality is nearly everything that is industrialized requires oil to move. The world does not move an inch without petrol. Your solar panels require oil to mine the resources, they require oil to be manufactured, they require oil to be transported. Change "solar panel" to "windmills" and its the same equation. The reality is while these things sound cool, their effectiveness is probably less than a drop in the ocean, no pun intended. The same applies here.
@@TheBanjoShowOfficial Well, yeah, that’s obvious. But even a drop in the ocean is something. Maybe in the future the world will be burned to the ground. Maybe we’ll have better ways of doing things. The first one is more likely, but we can always hope for the latter. I’m not stupid, I know that nothing is entirely clean for the earth.
@@juliasimmons1562 Is this COOL or DROOL? I think IT'S POOP and PEE and that he's a FOOL and MORAN!!!
When there's a spill, oil companies are fined based on how much oil is spilled. If you clean up the oil with mats like this, you can measure, pretty precisely, how much oil is cleaned up. But if the companies spray dispersants (soap), then the oil disperses and is hard to quantify. They pay less in fines.
in the end of the day its all about money....
@@joylucio4430 wait they do that? make the mess even more un-cleanable, just to be fined less? ..I hope they get fined for such bs as well
Didn't you all watch the video through the end? Hair mats like that will absorb water and it will sink with oil in it.
If it sink, how the hell they can quantify the spilled oil anyway?
@@rifqyfadhilahrahman2498 Tie the mats to a rope? Pull it back up?
@@ryanbrown982 You depicted it like the oil spilled in the scale of a fish pond.
In the massive scale, there is always technical limitation. Furthermore, the oil spill usually happened far away from shore. It adds more technical limitation.
There is always reason why experts didn't use this method. They are not stupid, people like you are the one make it too simple without knowing anything.
When she says “clean incineration,” theres no such thing. Burning the oil stored in the hair mats are just going to release all those harmful chemicals into the atmosphere.
Instead, they need to use mushrooms - there are certain fungi species that break down oil and recycle the chemicals to create healthy soil. See Paul Stamet’s research.
It’s a great initiative to clean up the oil with hair, but the disposal process also needs equal ingenuity. Of course, the most sustainable solution is to stop using oil in the first place.
Nice idea 💡 👌
Exactly
Mushrooms is a fascinating idea, to eat the oil hair!
you can't stop oil all together, you to go back to the stone age? No phone, no tech, no nothing
How are mushrooms going to be used in the ocean?
I'm a hairdresser and I heard of this many years ago. Just the other day a customer of mine asked if the hair clippings served purpose for anything other than trash. I responded with Yes!! They use hair for oil spills...I wish there were recycling bin for hair in hair salons. Keep up the good work guys!!
Whenever I clean a hairbrush I always take the hair and leave it outside for birds to use as nesting material
o wow these companies should ask hair dressers for the scrap and give them money for it
I've been saying this for years! We probably throw away 150lbs of hair/ month!
maybe just ask your boss to start recycling the hair in your salon ... you sound like it has to be some outside force that come in and help you to do a simpel inexpensive change.. its just trash sorting ✌
Pet dressers too.
"Put hair clippings in your shoe to make a mat". This woman is bonkers... we need more people like her.
Agreed. “And have you tried this? Oh yeah!”
She's not bonkers....she's aware of ancient knowledge. She's sharing how wool was originally discovered many thousands of years ago. A herder put some sheep hair in their shoe and the agitation, heat, and moisture caused the hair to turn to a piece of wool. We need people to deprogram themselves and get to work cleaning up our messes. You can be like her - pick a project and get to work!
@@ashtree3006 The hair did not ‘turn into wool’ it was felted (or matted)
@@heatherlochrie Personally I do this with dog and cat hair. Have made a few purses. I want to make a sweater out of Samoyed.
@@SobrietyandSolace I worded it that way for others. It's so cool what we can do with wool!
I "love" how it's easier for them to burn/spread chemicals, instead of finding a solution to recover the hair mats 🙄 hope to see more of these eco-friendly solutions being massively supported in the future!
Right? My immediate thought was to hook the hair up to buoys or set them in nets that are connected to floaters. What’s am I missing? It’s got be $$…
@@NikkiJabs You're right. Since they're fined on how much oil was spilled, and these mats would allow them to know pretty accurately how much was spilled...
@@argent_ice248 So it might be that the oil companies have a hand in pushing the alternatives to hair.
@@argent_ice248 so what are they gonna do when they get hit with a super gigantic fine for burning oil soaked hair mats?
@@NikkiJabs No, that means it might be that bad policy is why. If it truly is the fines that made them not want to try this, then that means the fines should either be calculated differently, be scaled down, or not exist if they otherwise would have used this product. After all, it's a pr nightmare for any company not to clean it up, so the fines may not really need to exist.
This is actually such an amazing idea, especially cause humans hair keeps growing so it's not like they're gonna run out
I like how the guy first said the hair booms were a bad idea because they would sink to the ocean floor and then be impossible to retrieve, and then went on to explain how they used a toxic spray to force a bunch of oil to sink to the ocean floor and then never retrieve it.
So what was the problem with the booms again?
Oil is consumed by naturally occurring microbes that normally subsist on stuff like whale falls and natural oil seeps. Instead of a bunch of oil droplets getting digested, you have a giant piece of oil-soaked trash sinking to the bottom (hopefully that rather than floating at a thermo/halocline).
The problem is that oil floats. If your boom sinks it's can not absorb any oil, and it's not a boom anymore.
If you install a mile of boom to protect a wetland it's a complete waste of time if it simply sinks.
literally the fact that the synthetic booms were a petroleum product probably the oil companies were maufacturing them and selling them lmfao
Exactly
@@sadface
So are your clothes, and your car, and the paint on your walls, and the packages that your food comes in, and...
I am in love with the fact they didn’t renew their patent. I can’t even explain how emotional it makes me feel that they are so caring and for the greater good of the world. I feel disgusted by the oil spills.
Except now anyone can file a patent for it and order them to cease and desist. They were better off making it a Creative Commons license.
@@therealteal620 agreed or renew the patent and just let anyone make em if they’d like
If your so overwhelmed with all this rubbish why don't you shave your head and make a mat instead of grooming yourself for subjective attractiveness?
What they do/make with the hairs ??
@@section7173 You're*
If you're going to be a dick, you better at least be right...
I don’t know why nobody thought of it before, this is brilliant. Hair is so notoriously good at holding oil and grease, we have an entire industry dedicated to making soaps that remove it.
It actually depends on the porosity of the hair bc hair also absorbs water
Germany did in 1940-45...
they've been doing this for decades, so you have reason to be confused at the idea that this is new
@@bonheur_d_etre_libre they also used the ashes as fertilizer
Why do idiots who learn something new think it's new?
Plenty of tech we use and even depend on existed before fricking Christ. Like the Pulleys, Cement, Language, Numbers, Algebra and Astrology.
I love people like her. People who actually care about more than just themselves.
Aww. And they’re so smart with this idea
This needs to go viral on so many levels. This is the perfect innovation, it is eco friendly and it is not harmful like the chemical and synthetic products.
and can be easily viralised during a crysis
they didnt even use it
@@Wayne_R because it's "dificult to recover" unlike the oil on the bothem of the ocean... the company probably judged that chemicals was cheaper. no matter what humans flock to money
its not the same in sea water ....
Did we not just watch the same video, the long haired scientist type explained why it isn't used in ocean spills. I also looked up the patent date of filling, the "shared idea" has only been shared for a year, so the irony of this whole thing baffles me.
These hair mats could potentially be created into large mats that could be dragged across the water using boats! This would cause the mats not to sink and retrieval could be easy. It might tangle some ocean life though, and would have to be used in smaller chunks in smaller areas, but all good things have some cons to them.
could even have a cord with waterbottles or something underneath keeping it afloat if it still sinks
like a trawler
Nah, oil-eating bacteria will be far more effective because of their vast number. We saw how fast they ate that BP oil spill up.
@@bibbayeet8007 glad theres some sort of alternative
Isn't it biodegradable, maybe bury it?
Since they're saturated with petroleum (and hair itself is flammable), maybe they could use it as a fuel source. I know we need to pivot away from petroleum, but might as well use these existing sources of oil as a fuel source rather than drilling for more oil. 🤷🏾♀️ Just a thought.
I like that!
I was thinking why not use mold to break down the fibers to release the oil again?
it looks fungi friendly
@@_Circus_Clapped_ maybe?
It's contaminated.
Contaminated fuel sources can't burn in the highest efficiency generators, but anything that creates heat can be burned in a way that allows some energy to be reclaimed. Clean incineration should always be paired with heat or power generation. Steam or Stirling Engine are good at converting unreliable heat sources to usable energy.
I'm incredibly interested in trying to become a partner with this charity for my local area. These mats were designed to combat oil spills, but my area is a massive automotive sector, and these mats could make for an excellent plastic replacer for the current wash/spill mats we commonly use. Right now they are designed to just funnel gray water into a container for a chem plant to process, but these seem like they'd actually be able to filter the water and trap the chemicals inside, thus allowing the water to stay in the ecosystem. This could actually be a game changer if this charity had the ability to pair up with giants like Ford or GM and start having these types of mats in use at garages and car washes at their dealerships.
Edit for additional thoughts:
Another interesting idea that could be considered is using activated charcoal inside the mats (particularly in the automotive application hypothesized above), which could offer the ability for the garage/car wash to be able to collect and reuse their water, further driving down the constant demand at water processing plants and driving down the total carbon output in a notoriously high industry, while utilizing a product that is just a byproduct of other industries (activated charcoal just means it's been lit already, and the charred remains got powdered, and charcoal is a common cooking medium even today in commercial applications)
As an environmental emergency responder (especially to oil/fuel/petroleum/hydrocarbon spills), I'd love to see an eco-friendly alternative to the current absorbent booms and pads that are made of polypropylene (a type of plastic called thermoplastic). Once they do their job of absorbing oil/fuel/etc., they are sent to landfills and processed there under state and federal regulations. A eco-friendly version has the potential to go to a facility where they would burn them for energy production INSTEAD of the landfill.
burning hair isn't a better alternative to sticking plastic in landfill, it'll produce a lot of sulphuric gases. Maybe we should look at bioplastics first, not hair
check out how fungus cleans oil spills
@@Gliccit i’m certain that people have tried to look into bioplastics plenty. Being able to use oil soaked hair as an alternative to other fuel sources that we’re going to burn anyways no matter what is much more renewable.
@@maddiesmenagerie8853 we could just toss the hair in landfill like we usually do, which is a much better outcome
@@Gliccit fair enough.
She is a role model. The kind of person children should look up to.
Agree!
Earth is flat. Oil is useless. Now I'm the hero
Thank you!
@@resonantfreaq try better
@@nothere_cora there is g r a phine oxide in those j a b s. You're so welcome
"Theyd sink to the bottom with the oil and be annoying to retrieve" so instead we sprayed dispersents to actively send the oil to the bottom where we can do literally nothing about it instead. Much smart, very better idea.
No. They would absorb water, and sink. Which means they're no longer absorbing oil, because oil floats.
If you install a mile of boom to protect a wetland it's a complete waste of time if it simply sinks.
@@c6q3a24 I think they mean that one of the currently used techniques to clean up oil spills is to spray them with dispersants, which cause the oil to sink to the bottom of the sea. So it's not like the hair mats sinking is actually a big problem, since one of our currently-used techniques does the same thing.
Except the dispersants are worse because the oil is free-floating, so it can still cause harm to marine wildlife in a very large area. The mats would keep the oil locked in, so while they might still harm some organisms like bottom feeders who might try to nibble on them, the negative impact would be smaller and would be less widespread.
@@raerohan4241
They literally show hair booms (the tube shaped items), and poly propylene booms in use - and have an independent third party explain how the hair booms were vastly inferior.
At the end of the day oil spills are much worse for air breathing animals than they are for purely aquatic animals, so sinking the oil is the lesser of two evils. Oil is not a completely foreign substance - there are lots of oil seeps and tar pits on land, and also in the ocean.
@@c6q3a24 "independent study" let's find out who paid for the independent study...
@@c6q3a24 they also explained that they are moving to hair mats rather than the booms because of the surface tension so it won't sink..
I’m very impressed with this, and I’m not impressed easily. I’m nobody, so me being impressed means very little, but I think this is something that makes sense in a world where very little does.
As a crafter this is amazing! She's essentially using a needled paddle board that would be used the separate materials such as cotton and their seeds or wool to get brambles and crap out. Then they use an gigantic needle felting machine! This is amazing!!!
When I got suggested this video I was so weirded out that I said out loud "how the hell could this work?" Then was totally mind blown when I saw the example she did with the hair mat and the oil. I lose so much hair from stress, thyroid issues, etc so tbh I might start donating my hair to this business, at least it'll give it use instead of filling up my trash cans.
Jesus Christ is Lord. it is all True. Read the Bible and do what it says. Please take your salvation seriously.
@@jamesmayle3787 Allah is Lord. it is all True. Read the Quran and do what it says. Please take your salvation seriously.
@@niBBunn the God of Abraham is not in Islam. Look at its beginning. The God of Abraham said who his will followed. It goes Abraham to Issac then Jacob, and that path leads you to Jesus Christ. Islam steams from the path of Ishmael, Abraham's illegitimate son, whom God explicitly stated did not have his will. Everything after this point in Islam is to excuse disobeying God's direct order. God laid out a direct path, and Islam stepped off it at the very first opportunity. They cannot claim the God of Abraham. Their God is the devil in disguise. Jesus Christ is Lord.
@@jamesmayle3787 what does this have to do with anything
What thyroid issue?
I remember back in elementary when the Guimaras Oil Spill in the Philippines happened (2006) we learned in science class different ways to absorb oil spill, two memorable techniques were using ash and fiber (such as hair). Tons of hair donations happened during that time to help clean the oil spill, mostly coming from barber shops.
Yes, I remember this too. Many donated their hair that time.
I'm just glad the Philippines was willing to be eco friendly to clean after that oil spill. Other countries could have done something similar it makes me sad they don't do something like this as often..
I remembered this
I don't remember this because I was 1 year old at that time
@@bmona7550 grow up dude no one cares about your eco friendly nonsense they had a issue and worked together as a group to solve it it was there only option and it worked so stop being ignorant not everyone is as brainwashed as you
There's a common fungus that breaks down oil very effectively and provides nutrients for plants to grow. Maybe the used mats could be covered outside in the fungus (it's a type that already exists all over earth so it won't hurt) and be broken down.
Invasive species might be an issue, testing that is important.
@@fionafiona1146 that's what I mean it's not an invasive fungus it already exists all over earth. I watched the documentary about fungus and mushrooms very interesting.
You’re correct! Certain strains of oyster mushrooms, like aspergillus, have been found to be able to “eat” plastic, petroleum, and even nuclear waste. In regards to petroleum, mycelium (mushroom “roots” essentially) eats the oil, grows mushrooms on it, and the mushrooms thrive and produce spores. The spores attract birds and insects, who then bring seeds and such from land and, long story short, island ecosystems begin to grow on the oil spill. You should look up Paul Stamets’ Ted talk.
The reason this isn’t being used really at all is because mycology is a fairly new branch of science, and is severely underfunded. The only people really studying this are citizen scientists who don’t have the laboratories and equipment needed to get this ball rolling on a larger scale. The government won’t fund these studies because fungi doesn’t decompose quickly, and because decomposition time varies between species. I find this ridiculous, as oysters have been found to begin to degrade plastic (which can take decades or even centuries to decompose) within thirty days.
Sorry for the novel, I’m just passionate about this. Oyster mycelium could be the eco-friendly way to clean up our oceans and landfills. I think you pose a very interesting thought too. We could use hair to suck up the oil quickly and remove it from harming more marine life, and then use fungi to break that oil down and get rid of it.
Lastly, yes, oysters are very common and actually one of the easiest mushrooms to grow, which makes it all the more enticing to start researching this more.
@@savannai9168 exactly thanks for explaining in detail 😁👍
@@savannai9168 Again, bad government policy is the culprit. I heard people also say BP decided not to use the hair mats possibly because apparently oils spills are fined per the amount of oil spilt, so dispersants make it harder to calculate. If that's truly why bp didn't use the hair mats, then that means either the fines are too high and need to be scaled down, they need to be calculated differently, or they shouldn't exist if the company otherwise would have chosen to use the hair mats.
After all, it's a pr nightmare for them not to cleanup their mess, so they would do it anyway. Remember a BP exec reached out to her, not the other way around, and the executives are rewarded for things like saving the company's reputation. This means they had every natural reason, absent the government, to use the best solution.
I didn’t know this was possible until the salon I worked at told me we recycled fallen hair. I didn’t know how that was possible until they told me about this! it’s actually so cool.
I just wish we could buy these mats, it would fit very well on my house porch...
@@Reth_Hard but there's no oil spilling in your house is it?
@@danthanh98 there is oil spill in my house every few hours. I need hair hair hair. NOWWWW
Ikr? I’d be so happy for my hair to go into something like this
It sounds weird, but I’d be happy because it helps the environment
i did a science project on this back in 2019 and it spanned all the way through to 2021 !! one of my favorite science projects to do , and it’s a very interesting subject overall . i had a lot of fun with it and learned a lot of useful information that can be used in future years !!
both human hair and dog hair is VERY efficient for oil spill clean ups and it’s WAY more economically friendly !! i even contacted matter of trust and worked with them on my project for a little while :) it’s a wonderful and very interesting topic , and i encourage everyone to get the word about about the use of human hair for cleaning oil spills , and to look into this topic more in-depth !
edit- i used real crude oil for this project , too , so it really works !!!
Gf gym
Not when you consider these petroleum companies likely make plastic they use, and they dont have to pay distribution. I appreciate you looking into this, but I'm quite sure your project was exactly representative.
I'm just sitting here thinking about the volume of floof my huskies produce... guess where their hair is gonna go now
did you win?
me and my mom donate our hair all the time one time my mom asked my hair so gray and dead what they even do with it anyway. and the salon told us about this. so donating her hair means if it's good quality it gets to be made into a beautiful wig for somebody. and if her hair isn't up to wig quality it can be used for other great things like this. makes me happy to know I can make a difference with just some hair
We need more people like her in this world. We need to support this type of thinking and using renewable materials. Thank you for bringing this into the spotlight and running this story. We need to change the world and the way we do things.
I work in the greater recycling industry and we have a huge bra inde ad NIMBY problem that is not going to ever go away as long as we have the idiotic authoritarian fear-mongering nut job political left fake feel-good agendas in play.
Everyone is all for recycling and positive reuse, UNTIL you want to set up facilities to do the actual work legally and under safe controlled condtions. Then it's a total bra inde ad eco tar d zombie world, where everyone thinks they know more about what you do than you do as the proven expert trying to fix the actual problem, and insane impossible what-ifs built on nothing real are the only thing they want to discuss and you will never get approval until you have addressed them, which is impossible because they are not even based in reality.
Couldn't agree more
@NewmexicanMe she's helping to push it so she's still very good
You can collect oil by using wood powder too.
When my father was a little kid, he noticed a lot of this wood powder near a wood work place, and he also realised how much oil could be collected by it.
I don't know if anyone has used the idea yet, but seemed like a cool thing so shared.
Sawdust is used for exactly that purpose in industrial applications.
The byproduct from oil collection by this wood powder method would probably even be pretty useful
It would be kind of a sludgier version of coal
they teach this and have been using this in the auto industry for years, nonetheless still good idea.
@@StatesMusic should be applied in oil spill cleanup if it's well known
@@ImTavi not sure how youd go about pouring sawdust on the ocean and recollecting it, oil cleanups are actually being delayed by having employees drive through the spill using boats and further spreading/breaking it down making it harder to clean up.
Many videos regarding this, I don’t think oil will be cleaned up anytime soon, doesnt seem to be some of their intentions.
I once saw a documentary about a similar thing. A swiss guy a long time ago would experiment every day after work and he found a mixture of different rocks that could neutralise the oil but he could not find anyone to care about it a the time. Apparently there's also a lot of money in the oil spills.
There is... if they clean it up less efficiently and collect less oil they get fined for spilling ""less"" oil
Thanks for all the efforts in cleaning the environment as well as inspiring people to make contribution, which matters most from my point of view.
Everyone in the world is born with kindness. Most of us wanna help people but we just don't know where to start. Your story definitely encourages me and the other to HELP OTHERS. Not only by donating hair but by any other means.
Let's love environment. Love each other.
I remember when the big BP oil spill happened, I was working as a receptionist at a hair salon and we were told to keep the garbage and hair separate (otherwise put together) because we were donating the cut hair to help clean up the spill. Until this video popped up, I kinda forgot about that! I think that is so amazing to see how that works, and how well!
I've been growing my hair for a couple years to get a Lara Croft braid, I KNOW I'm not gonna keep it that length for too long. I'm so happy to have found these people doing this great thing. I dont trust most hair company's after finding out a lot of them typically make actual store bought wings and rairly actually donate the hair to people in need. THIS is something I can get behind.
Yes I was so sad to find out they dont actually donate the hair to cancer patients, but SELL them it's so evil but ig that's the hair industry :(
Hair longer than shoulder length irritates me immensely so I gave up on wanting to pursue the Lara Croft braid, but I'm so happy someone out there is doing it! ♥ Good luck with that, and also with finding a legitimate place to donate to if you do follow through with that as well! :)
*companies *rarely 😉
The guy who thought of this is a genius. And yet it's so obvious because we always see oil getting caught in the hair of these sea mammals. I'm honestly willing to bet that feathers can also clean up oil spills just as effectively
Was originally a male hairdresser here in Australia he was on the news back in the 90s these people are just glory seekers
@@mathewparr1176 the farther the information spreads the better, no matter how it happens. And it’s being put to use, so, who cares if they are “glory seekers” or not?
@@mathewparr1176 I mean it says dude in the US did it in 89. You say you heard about it in the 90s, how do you know the Australian wasn’t copying?
Either way its a good idea regardless and very well could of been a very old idea, either copied or re-realized.
The fact that this company is non-profit and open source doesn’t sound much like “glory seeking“ though..
Yoo funny seeing u here
@@zgart Haha what are you doing here?! Maybe i'm spending too much time on the internet
Unrelated to their business, but damn it's sickening to know there's people out there that are okay with what harm they do to the planet and expect kind people, such as matteroftrust, to clean up the messes for them. Thanks for all you do!
I think it’s cute that we try to clean up large oil spills caused by massive corporations but we never talk about holding the owners and CEOs of these corporations accountable with huge fines and their lives. Waste dumping and oil spills should not only be prosecuted for fences but they should be followed up with heavy fines because the reason why oil pollution is so prevalent is not because it’s not preventable, it’s because it’s cheaper to deal with the consequences than to prevent pollution.
They do get fines but thats all because the world cant really go without oil at this stage.
alright mrs oil user
I think they do get fine but still they make more profit compare to the fine
An actual not for profit? That's really in it for the environmental impact instead of the profit margin? I thought this was just fantasy
@@Howard-bc7sl you can criticize a society but still partake in one
5:28 So let me get this straight: The hair boons weren't used because they would sink and take the oil to the ocean floor - so instead they used chemicals that make the oil sink to the ocean floor? Sounds logical.
Lol hair has a different buoyancy.
The hair mats probably didn't sink all the way to the floor due to buoyancy.
I suppose companies who produce the chemicals, did not like the idea.
🤯
Collecting hair isn’t as profitable as using more oil
Innovation should be cyclical, not just "producing more", wether it be product or waste. its geninely fascinating to see technology like this.
Jesus Christ is Lord. it is all True. Read the Bible and do what it says. Please take your salvation seriously.
@@jamesmayle3787 i’m gay lol
Technology like this, shes been doing it since 2000, thats 22 years.
@@edentranlol wait really wow i might as well fall for ya UwU.
@@jamesmayle3787 stop
I remember in that bp oil spill the state was asking people to donate their hair to clean the oil spill.
I've been following their Hair Boom process since the beginning & I must say I am so proud of the progress! I'd also like to point out that although majority of it has been cleaned up, we are still dealing with the effects & mass devastation from the BP Oil Spill down here in Louisiana TO THIS VERY DAY! It's certainly not spoken of the way it should be but as a native Louisianian born & raised here my whole life, I can say that I wish someone had the guts to speak up publicly on the issues we are dealing with still! BP has paid out billions & millions more to keep people hush hush & it's truly unbelievable because really no body except us Louisiana folks know about the issues! I can only hope & pray someday soon someone will step up & speak up!
I feel you, I’m from Louisiana too
@@SoNewOrleans1 Sher... Hey fam!!!
Как и везде, все сидят и ждут, чтобы кто-то встал и высказался ;((
Why don't you? Gather some people. There is strength in numbers.
@Star B Easier said than done.
Oil company: don’t want oil soaked hair to sink to the bottom.
Also oil company: spray and sink it to the bottom
Also,
Society: "We want everything recycled no matter the costs."
Society: " How dare you try build a recycling center in my area, we don't want that type of thing here!"
"the buoys would take the oil and sink and make recovery more difficult" which would be bad. but then the actual clean up effort is using chemicals to push the oil....to the bottom of the ocean where it stays, which is....better?
This is an incredible innovation, I hope it gets utilized more!
Perhaps if the hair decomposes, the oil would rise to the surface?
@@jkxss sure, but the sea is constantly moving, so the dispersants do...what eventually?
@@bowdencable7094 how does your comment have anything to do with what I said? Do you think that the sea is constantly mixing all the way from the ocean floor so that eventually the hair mats will rise to the surface? Your comment makes no sense at all.
Yeah I didn't understand that either. Maybe they decided it was better to sink them after they'd already decided to use the plastic ones? Still sounds silly though..
Im just guessing here, but I would think the hairmats sinking with the oil quite majorly interrupts the local ecosystem with a lack of light and covering parts of the ocean floor and the noncovered crude oil in a more tangible way than the very small bubbles of oil and solvent (think dish soap in large scale) would, despite the chemical's impact on nature. The usage of hairmats would also need a more hands on approach than simply adding the chemicals into the water and could be used in a wider virarity than the pickup would need. When possible the alternative of using a plastic derivative was used, to make as small impact on the envoirment as possible and avoid sinking and littering the ocean floor with hair that's foreign the ecosystem. I love the idea and how it may be implemented but it seems to be a bit further into the future to actually use them in the enviorment on a large scale, aa this would take special mashines that are not profitable or even possible to produce at the moment due to the small scale of operation and the fact that all mats dont have the same scale, making process of picking the mats up when they start to sink difficult.
Now that's thinking outside the box..Amazing recycling concept with double fold results!!
Using hair to clean oil spills is genius. It's amazing how creative people can be.
"The hair mats sank and recovery was too difficult, but we just left the other oil methods on the ocean floor anyway"
I love this so much! I hate it when the environment gets ruined and it can be cleaned up so .. peacefully and without more waste being made
I've been losing my chunks of my hair for almost a year now and this makes me feel better mentally and that even if I lose my hair, I could donate it to these people to help the environment
PLEASE KEEP UP THE WORK
i got my hair stuck in one of those my head is now a floor mat :D
I was wondering about this too! So much loose hair ends up stuck in my comb every time I comb my hair.
Pretentious. Glad you're balding
I'm sorry to hear that you are losing your hair Dahlia. May you be healed & may you live a long happy life with radiant health. 🙏💗🤗🌞🌬🌊🌈❤
Sending you a healing blanket of love and a rainbow of protection. 🌈❤ Be well.
Sir Nelson, I'm sorry that you are hurting too. May you find peace and love and happiness. May all negative energies that you are experiencing return to their source as love and light. Namaste.
This is purely amazing - as a long haired blonde, I am constantly pulling out soo much hair from my hairbrush and also when in the shower.
Super disappointed there is no link to the direct website of the company in the description!!!
I've always believed that adding more volume of more toxic chemicals to the already high volume of toxic chemicals in a biosphere like the ocean was a bad idea.
But out of sight out of mind is cheaper than actually being responsible about it.
If the regulators witheld drilling licences until this was properly cleaned up, the oil companies would spare no time or expense to find a way.
Greed is disgraceful!
the problem with international waters is that a single country can't just implement it. moreover, lobbyists will stop at no cost to prevent that from happening
Regulators probably get paid off to allow it
this is honestly genius and the idea should definitely be explored more!! there is a continuous source of raw supply that doesn’t require more wasting of resources to produce (e.g. salons have piles and piles of hair in their shops everyday and they all just get swept up and thrown away!! a program can be set up for them to receive the hair cut off from their customers!) and the product itself is biodegradable as hair do breakdown over time with the help of natural microorganisms and insects that break down the keratin and feed on it. If not, I’m sure these oil-soaked mats could serve a different yet equally smart use!! It’s definitely time to take care of our planet🥺
The amount of resources required to ship all of this hair around the globe does have an impact as well. The scientist also said that hair soaks up water and causes it to sink with the oil. This has been tried in an actual oil.spill and it didn't work out. They used plastic that already existed to clean it up. Most products we use are made of plastic. If you want to actually impose change, be conscious of the products you buy and how they are made, from start to finish. This includes how the minerals are mined, what types of machines are used. You'll find oil is used everywhere and it's going to take more than human hair to change our economy and lifestyle across the planet to move us away from using oil for literally everything. It's been 50 years since plastic really started taking off, it didn't just happen over night.
Edit: think about how oil has been a major part of your life. If it never existed life would not have been as easy or cost effective for parents to have kids. Many young people of today may not have even been born if it weren't for how oil changed the lives of parents. Greta Thunberg is from Norway and her entire existence was made possible because Norway was one of the biggest oil nations on the planet. So don't blame the adults for this mess, were all responsible for it and if you don't think you are, look at what you are holding in your hand right now... Yep, OIL.
@@TBonerton thank you for shedding light on this issue, I didn't actually thought that far out 😲 I have always been very environmentally conscious and i do think you're correct in emphasizing the importance of reducing, as i do also think that this should be prioritized before reusing and recycling, so its great to meet another mind who think alike and i hope you continue educating others out there! :D
@@ode8119 I grew up in the 80s and 90s when recycling was a pipe dream. Reduce, reuse, recycle was the mantra we heard in TV ads, but it was just starting out. Recycling somehow took over, but no one reduced or reused. If anything we started using more because things can be "recycled". Then we find out that "recycling" was just shipping more crap across the planet to less fortunate countries and they essentially just polluted the environment further by burning a lot of it or dumping it in the water. Now we are finding out that recycling is a false pretense, but it's almost too late. We do need to reduce and reuse, but I get laughed at when I bring food in an old sour cream container instead of a brand new SnapLok. Too many people are worried about getting rich off crypto currency, which is the biggest waste of energy and most of it is generated by China who still use coal. There is no such thing as green energy when you factor in all the minerals that are required.
PS, help spread the word. Politicians are forcing a green energy transition which forces us to use more rare minerals and pollute the planet even more. It's all a politicians dream with very little science to back it up.
@@TBonerton furreals! the possibility of recycling shouldn't be an excuse for us to justify our indulgence in overconsumption but this is exactly what many are doing, unfortunately 😞
This is absolutely astonishing. This is amazing and life changing. why isn’t this so much bigger? Why isn’t this being put out to everyone in this world and pushed like plastics and everything else is!!! I hope it starts to be bigger now!! This is a good example of we produce naturally things that could resolve 90% of the worlds problems today. It’s just about getting that idea out there and getting it past the government and what not. This is literally so amazing and organic and not harmful to everything and everyone.. It needs to be everywhere asap and I can’t wait for it to be!!
The problem is that the hair mats start to sink. Oil is floating on water. So unfortunately it can’t really absorb that much oil . And the oil that is absorbed will sink to the bottom of the ocean with these mats.
@@ducklingscap897 couldn’t they just attach it to something so it could get out the oil in the water like how a net for a pool gets out dirt and then take it back out and discard it? I’m confused on why they would just throw the mats in water and then leave it lol
@@girlbye4233 same here, I was also like “why do they just throw it and leave it though?”
Nets would be a good idea, they could do it with boats and retrieve it
@@castaway3715 totally agree!!!!. I am probably going to look more into it and see if their is a reason or something!!
I am curious how the used hair mats are disposed.
Probably buried. Should be biodegradable
@Goosa Poosa don't ya just love the smell of burnt hair
@@mismis3153 but won't the oil mix with the water and get back to some ocean/river, if those mattress would be burnt?
@@zythe9876 trash also doesn't smell nice and are still burnt. Actually, if it was a common occurance to clean oceans like that, would it be suitable to use it instead of oil/coal/gas to make energy/warmth?
@@ritaerror7829 god there has to be something wrong with you. i was just saying that it probably would smell bad and you're assuming that i thought that hair wouldn't be a good alternative at all.
We need more of this community and also this harmonized mindset, a company can grow if you do the right things.
The deepwater horizon oil spill was extremely bad for the environment, and things like this are great for future scenarios, but might not be that effective in an accident of that magnitude. Also sad to this day that BP declined help from Norway when we offered to send industrial cleanup equipment made for oil spills that would help massively... (We did help stop the leak tho)
What’s wrong with BP??
Who's we?
Yes but they were discussing how anyone can use this on their shore-lines, and this will stop the argument of using of dispersants.
The dispersants were used because they felt the public impact of seeing oil spillage on shore was more harmful than having the oil in the bottom of the ocean. If there was hair-bags on the shores of some beaches, it would catch a lot more oil than what got buried away at reefs.
There is still an environmental impact in making those industrial cleanup equipment, the making of the hair-mats is very rudimentary, easy but not its not as durable or reusable, and there is still a concern in how to get rid of the used hairs in a eco-friendly matter. Also the hair will sink to the bottom of the sea after catching enough oil, so throwing them around aimlessly is also not a solution.
There's also a lot of oil spill prevention systems available that would've stopped this from happening.
deepwater wasn't an accident, it was fully on the management. it was totally foreseeable and preventable.
The hair salon i work at; we have a hair bin where we collect the hair and the waste collection company grab and then send off the hair to help assist with this cause. It's amazing to see the results from a small amount of effort.
I love that.
That's fantastic! I own a pet grooming salon, and I looked into donating our fur clippings, but the shipping costs were unfortunately much too prohibitive. I'd love to find an alternative to adding bags of hair to the landfills every week!
I got this idea 2 years ago.i am glad it is being implemented by someone else
2 years ago? im sorry but the in the video it says that they got the idea in 1999
@@iii9591 i mean i got idea without seeing anywhere (on my own while applying oil in my hair), then i researched and came to know people got this idea earlier than me 😂
I recall some years back a couple of young men came up with an oil absorbing powder, kind of like the floor sweeping stuff you spread to keep dust down. They put some into a tank of oil and water and it just collected or drew the oil to it like a magnet and left the water totally clean. I recall the host of the show looked at them and said, "You guys just won the lottery with this invention." That was the last I ever heard of it. I can't recall which show or host it was.
Sad.
I work in the oil industry and we use a product like that. they come in a 50 lb bag. We use it onshore in Canada, not sure if it's used offshore.
@@Terrx Do you know what that stuff is called? Maybe it's the same stuff those guys invented.
@@Terrx Can I buy it? What it is called?
@@sirnikkel6746 I think it was called Oil Gator. It's a cotton based powder as far as I know.
BP: "We're sorry"
Really is messed up seeing those animals affected by the spills though :/
I know the little seal broke my heart
Everyone at the time was so angry with BP including myself. Now I'm just angry at human beings in general for failing to recognize how much we individually contribute to these types or problems. If you drive a car, or use any product derived from petroleum- you're part of the problem. And that makes us all culpable. We're all responsible.
I have no choice but to shave my head every couple months I'd be more than happy to donate my hair for this I'm sure there's a lot of other people out there that would be more than willing to help for this....
Do you mind if i ask why you shave your head?
I'd be able to actually save my hair that falls out of the shower
@@Sarah-ic4yu Cancer unfortunately but please don't worry I'll be ok. I've had this problem since gread 8 when I first started getting treatments it's not a big deal but at least I would fell better about my hair being used for good.
@@MaxS535 Women not guy 🤣 but it does work out cheaper on alot of things that's for sure but as a women I would love to have long hair but the medical treatments I get makes my hair break off so it's just easier to shave it than cry every morning finding my hair on my pillow...
Jesus Christ is Lord. it is all True. Read the Bible and do what it says. Please take your salvation seriously.
This shows a really creative way to clean up oil spills using human hair, which is something most people wouldn’t think of. It's surprising how much oil hair can absorb, and yet some big oil companies still prefer using synthetic materials like plastic-based mats, which aren't as eco-friendly. It makes you wonder why they don't choose the more natural option, especially since the hair mats could be composted afterward. The fact that so many people donated hair during the BP oil spill shows how communities are willing to help, but it's disappointing that some companies didn’t fully embrace this solution. It seems like profit and convenience often win over long-term environmental benefits
Do you not find it DISGUSTING that big Oil companies are not jumping on this to help!
Thanks for the video and thank-you Lisa
Personally I find it disgusting that Big Oil even exists anymore. We've had so many alternative fuels since the industrial revolution.
It’s not that simple it will take a long time to replace and restructure companies and industries that rely on oil.
And also you have to deal with other countries and nations.
@@nomus1172 yeah, I know it would take ages. But that's the thing, we should have started making that transition a long time ago.
@@maxburrill6192 though solar power Han only go so far and nuclear power is getting more common.
Though gasoline is used to power lots of vehicles. Electric cars are very new
Plus certain countries just aren’t rich enough to get clean power.
@@nomus1172 electric cars are over 140 years old bro what are you talking about new?
When I was a little kid I cut off all my hair with safety scissors, in typical little kid fashion, & my mom ended up donating the hair to this organisation. This was such a nice video to see. Made me smile🥲
Genius, if only all the salons would comply with this, we could clean up a whole ocean using this method as ot is good for the environment too! Kudos to these people.
The NOAA: "The hair mats became waterlogged and sunk making retrieval very difficult"
Also the NOAA: "The oil being chemically sunk to the bottom of the ocean is considered a 'net environmental benefit'"
Adding some air baloons or balls might solve the problem easly.
The NOAA guy didnt say that the NOAA considered it a net environmental benefit, he said the companies/ they claimed it was less bad than washing on shorelines and hence a 'net benefit'. He didnt seem to agree with it.
Also he was only comparing the hair mats to the poly mats. Its a totally different clip from what he was saying about the companies claiming net benefit.
@@ddawg3230 Yes, I understand he wasn't endorsing the idea of chemically sinking the oil. However, given that they would have had operational authority I would think the less of two evils would be preferred. The oil will still be there, waiting to leech into the water, but with the hair mats at least they're natural and not just adding more chemicals to persist in the environment
@@Dysiode It sounds like they use poly mats where they operate themselves, and have an issue with banning companies from using the chemical method.
From that little snippet we saw, it just seemed like he was advocating for poly mats instead of either hair mats or chemical spray.
Oil is surprisingly well re-absorbed - it is a natural product, after all.
Mushrooms can help the decay process and they have been shown to filter/ clean oil. I wonder if that would help breakdown the hair after it's soaked up the oil
I like this idea 💡
I love this. I used to leave out my hair from the brush on my balcony and the birds would grab it for nests lol. I know that's weird but one day the idea came into my head and then I watched a bird grab it and was so excited!
my dad did something similar with his (husky) dogs fur after brushing
Warning! That can kill birds! Human hair is so strong and sharp it can trap birds if wrapped around them. Id recommend searching a video on it. Im sure you didnt know that when doing it but please be aware.
@@why_on_earth1100 exactly, same with hair from horses‘ manes and tails and even long dog hair or long-staple sheep wool. Only very short hair is harmless and helpful.
@@why_on_earth1100 then they shouldn't grab it, my hair is gonna get in the environment naturally. If birds can't determine what nesting materials are suitable that's their problem and they should adapt.
@@thugpug4392 Or, knowing that it’s bad, you can revise your behavior to make sure it won’t do harm. If you even were doing this in the first place (actively putting specifically long hair out to be taken). It’s not like birds have microscopes to be able to examine the differences between human hairs and other fibers that might be safer to use. Nor do they have many ways to feel things with a general cursory degree of detail like we can with our fingers. Even if they could ‘adapt’, it’s unlikely to happen for a very long time through evolution, and it wouldn’t be very likely in the first place unless vast numbers of people did put the birds in this situation where they need to evolve to survive. It’s probably sparse enough of an occurrence that it won’t affect a terribly significant number of birds negatively.
This taught me a lesson of how hair is eco-friendly for absorbing oil spills but it also taught me I need to be using even more oil in my 4C hair so it doesn't become brittle and break off!! 👁👄👁
This is amazing! I find hair so nasty though but this is great
Wow, this is amazing! With almost 8 billion people on earth we can solve some of the problems we create. It still makes me sick when I see the damage we did to the gulf coast. And just because we don't see it anymore doesn't mean it's gone. All that oil is still there at the bottom of the ocean.
“Cleaning” oil by forcing it to sink and settle at the bottom is like sweeping the dirt under the rug.
Thats what corporations do, sweep it under the rug and bribe politicians not to be held responsible.
@@nolives so why do they prefer the non-sinking polypropylene instead of the sinking human hair?
@@Simonstoster because they profit from the cleanup selling the cleanups in a lot of cases. Lots of big industry is just a racket and theres plenty of examples.
@@nolives but the sinking hair would be gone and the floating polypropylene has to be disposed of, which is much more expensive. Still, they prefer the later. Why?
@@Simonstoster
Because oil floats - so you also need your boom to float. Otherwise it will collect no oil.
this actually makes a lot of sense. my hair picks up oil very fast on my head, so i could imagine just how fast it would be to pick up other oils
bumping this to get exposure. lisa and her team are heroes!
This is awesome, the fact that they can turn something that is pure waste into a useful industrial material is so cool. Every barbershop should be sending their garbage clippings to this company
NO
I never would've thought of HUMAN hair being used for cleaning up ANYTHING! 🤣
God bless their brilliance! This is what you call thinking outside of the box!
Jesus Christ is Lord. it is all True. Read the Bible and do what it says. Please take your salvation seriously.
@@jamesmayle3787 jesus christ is not everyone's lord :)
@@Anon-jf4el buddy, you couldn't be more wrong. You need him so much you can't even understand. Everyone needs Jesus Christ. Most just never do the serious self healing Jesus taught. There's reasons why Faith requires actions.
@@jamesmayle3787 like, i respect your religion and all but not everyone believes in jesus christ. he's not everyone's lord.
@@jamesmayle3787 This isn’t the place for this kind of discussion and no one here is going to have a “come to Jesus moment” because you typed this here. I myself am a Christian but I know and realize that this isn’t the platform for witnessing to people who may or may not want Jesus in their life. ✌🏻
That demo she did made me go "Woah!" Holy crap. Maybe I'm too used to overselling and under delivering products but wow, they were not joking that it works. I've never heard of this though, I wonder how well known it is? Doubt my go to barber place knows about this.
It's weird but I don't think it's gross tho, or more gross than something soaked in oil is anyway.
I've heard of this oil spilling news before, and I remember very well that the reporter did mention something about an effort of using hair to collect oils, now a decade later in this video I finally understand what exactly happen, I live in southeast asia so yea I think it's considered a huge disaster back then to make it to my mainstream media
@@giantalaskanworm719 I live in southern Alabama, less than ten miles from the gulf of Mexico. The oil spill was a HUGE ordeal. Still to this day, over a decade later, the beaches aren't the same color, or texture. The top layer is manufactured sand that's trucked in and spread out over night so it appears to be the same, but dig down a few inches, or go check it out immediately after a bad storm, and you'll see the thick sheen of oil, and it you dare pick up the sand you'll find it's significantly heavier and tackier than it used to be/than the manufactured sand is. BP did an AWFUL job of cleaning up, and the vast majority of the fines they paid did not get used towards truly cleaning it up. They did a halfway decent job of paying for the locals who's jobs and health were negatively impacted, but only in the beginning. If you have long term health issues from it, you've gotta fight tooth and nail for the help. Which a LOT of people got sick from it, and the media just sorta swept it away. It was a huge ordeal at first. But it's never mentioned now, and it's something that those of us who live along the coast are forever changed by.
Exactly what i thought also
@@chelsiemoore906 nothing drives me crazier then stuff like that, its beyond horrible what they did to the gulf.
Hair is hydrophobic and so is oil. Because water can't get into the hairstrand, the oil quickly attaches itself to the hairstrand in an attempt to get away from the water. It's how seabum stays on the hair, it can be pretty good as a finishing step to your hairstyles as well.
But really this is a great method. Giving back to the Earth.
It's a great natural product, so I'm glad someone has found a use for it. Laying hair mats on beaches when there's an oil spill, seems like a brilliant idea.
This is so cool! I applaud her and all the ppl helping. What a great idea! She seem like she genuinely cares for the betterment of this planet! I am so glad ppl like her exist!🥰
When the MV Wakashio oil spill happened on the shores of Mauritius in July 2020, due to lack of resources in an emergency, the Mauritians were donating their hair. Hair salons around the island were offering free and discounted hair cuts in order to donate the trimmings to clean-up efforts. Volunteers stuff the hair into stockings and use it to both corral the oil, preventing its spread, and absorb it from the water.
So how effective was it in the end?
Absolutely amazing work you're doing. Excellent idea!
I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this or not but the inside of classic Volkswagen seats are mat like covers made of woven horse hair that are placed over the springs used to cushion the seats. That's why when you get in an old vw, it has that special kind of funky smell which I've grown to love. I act took mine apart to fix it and discovered this.
Why hasnt this been made as a huge news story but more than that made into a real movement that literally the world, each and every person who cuts their hair can help save so much in this world. Theres always a way to solve a problem but people need to hear about it so problem solving can be made at a world wide level especially with the patent being ended like that made me cheer even more for this incredible opportunity to help the world. It's just hair but with all those animals getting shaved regularly why waste it when it can really be utilized.
This was basically my 10th grade science project. I used nylon to hold my hair mats, but same concept. It was crazy to just toss it into a bucket of water/oil and watch the oil disappear.
One year during the science fair I made fish out of paper, decorated their scales and stapled two ends together and filled them with cotton, hung them up in translucent nylon threads and hung them all from the top of a cardboard and the put a saran wrap plastic on top....and put oil on them, on top of the plastic. Lol. This was to represent oil spills in the ocean. They can just use machines to suck up all the oil and spit back the filtered water through the other end. Period.
This is incredible !! Oil companies have to get on this
Also that guy talking about using chemicals to get rid of the oil spill as being better than trying to find a way to keep the hair mats floating is crazy
Damn, I shed so much that donating would be a piece of cake! :0
What a wonderful woman and charity. Huge respect and appreciation!
Attach the mats together end to end. Release them to contain the oil and absorb it then they get returned to the ship being pulled on a conveyer belt situation through press rollers to squeeze oil into large containers. Then cleaned oil free mats go out again...repeat. With the mat tech must come the specific vessel to achieve the mat release, retrieval, and return process...that's what's missing.
Dear Whitelight--I set out to find you and find you I did! I was going to say just those points. Someone had to have had the same ideas as me for recycling.
If we can ship shale from Canada to tejas for extraction and refining, surely we can retrieve the very same oil and then clean the mats to let them live another day--or more!!
Shalom.
@@janaleland9038 We could, but alas, humans are lazy and takes the fastest and easiest path rather than the better one.
Brilliant!
@@WhyTH-camWhy --In the very precise words of The Honeymooners and Jackie Gleason--"How right you are!!"
With tons of shampoo? Lol
I love everything about this! My mom had wanted to donate her hair to help people with cancer get free wigs. She grew her hair for so long to donate. Once she cut it, she couldn't find anyone who wanted it because she had started to go gray. She is a natural red head and her silver streaks looked more like highlights that gray, and it was virgin hair. She finally found a charity, I think thru Pantene, but I love this idea even more. It wouldn't matter if it's color treated, gray, and it seems to be a super clean technology used to help animals and environments. Yall are doing awesome work!
i’ve never been so happy to see so many piles of human hair before