Inhabitat » CLEANING UP AN OIL SPILL WITH HAIR AND MUSHROOMS?

November 19, 2007

CLEANING UP AN OIL SPILL WITH HAIR AND MUSHROOMS?

The recent Cosco Busan oil spill in the San Francisco Bay may have just met its match in an eco-cleaning solution that uses human hair and mushrooms! A group of intrepid volunteers has embarked on a project to clean up oil at San Francisco’s beaches using an unusual, yet totally organic, method of waste removal: hair mats and mushrooms. Using mats made of hair, the volunteers are able to absorb slicks of oil on the shore that have washed up since the Cosco Busan cargo ship sideswiped the base of the Bay Bridge last week, spilling 58,000 gallons of oil.

CLEANING UP AN OIL SPILL WITH HAIR AND MUSHROOMS?, Cosco Busan Oil Spill in San Francisco Bay, Cleaning up oil with mushrooms and hair, Cleaning up oil with mushrooms and hair mats, organic cleaning of oil spill, oil spill clean up with hair and mushrooms, matter of trust, Lisa Gautier

Hair naturally absorbs oil from air and water and acts as the perfect sponge for an oil slick, according to Lisa Gautier of San Francisco, who donated 1,000 hair mats to volunteers. The spongy hair mats, apparently, feel like an S.O.S pad and are about the size of a doormat. Once the mats are soaked with the oily black gunk, oyster mushrooms will be placed on the mats and will grow and absorb the oil. The mushrooms will take approximately 12 weeks to absorb all of the oil, converting the oily hair mats into nontoxic compost. A national mushroom expert named Paul Stamets donated $10,000 worth of oyster mushrooms to the clean-up effort when he heard of the project and Lisa Gautier’s work.

If you are wondering why Lisa Gautier happened to have 1,000 human hair mats lying around, here’s why: The woman runs a nonprofit called Matter of Trust, which matches donations from businesses with needy nonprofits. For a previous project, Gautier had collected human hair from Bay Area hair salons and turned them into hair mats for the San Francisco Department of the Environment to use to absorb motor oil.

How fabulous is this? If only hair and mushrooms could clean up all of our toxic waste problems.

+ Matter of Trust Organization

Via The San Francisco Chronicle

21 Responses to “CLEANING UP AN OIL SPILL WITH HAIR AND MUSHROOMS?”

Joyce Says:

November 19th, 2007 at 12:21 pm

It’s been known for some time now that hair absorbs oil. Have there been efforts by the government to collect hair for such oil spills?

Kat Says:

November 19th, 2007 at 11:23 pm

wow talk about renewable resources! not to mention one that usually, as far as i know, goes to waste.

Chat Marchet News Digest » CLEANING UP AN OIL SPILL WITH HAIR AND MUSHROOMS? Says:

November 20th, 2007 at 3:48 pm

[…] It gets better, click here for the story. This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 at 4:14 pm and is filed under le Chat Marchet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. […]

Anonymous Idiot Says:

November 20th, 2007 at 3:52 pm

This is likely a stupid question but.. the company that spilled the oil has no liability in paying for its cleaup?

This is totally awesome, though. :)

» Human Hair, Mushrooms Help Soak-Up Spilled Oil in San Francisco Zeitgeistland: Once more unto the breach… Says:

November 20th, 2007 at 4:08 pm

[…] Human Hair and Mushrooms Clean Oil Spill Tags: green, hair mat, oceanography, oil spill, oyster mushrooms, pollution, rehabilitation, San Francisco Bay […]

tattoo guy Says:

November 20th, 2007 at 4:31 pm

This may be the best discovery of this decade.

every time i see an oil spill or a nuclear weapon go off it makes me go a little bit cold.

if we can stop the oil from damaging the world so much then thats a good start to a better existence

PENIX Says:

November 20th, 2007 at 6:13 pm

What happens to the mushrooms after they soak up the oil? Those them in a land fill? Eat them?

Greg Says:

November 20th, 2007 at 6:40 pm

Very interesting reading for sure! Nice to see what can be done to help our environment when there is an accident.

khila Says:

November 20th, 2007 at 7:28 pm

wow!!!! thats pretty kewl that ppl can invent this stuff and ppl that will help our enviroment. so i thought i would just leave a message after i was done researching for a project on oil spills!!!lol but yeah g2g bye ppl!!!

luv lotz
khila

Dubby Says:

November 20th, 2007 at 7:39 pm

“If only hair and mushrooms could clean up all of our toxic waste problems.”

I’m not sure about hair but its widely known that mushrooms have been used in the bioremediation of many types of toxics. Inhabitat is a bit late to the game.

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

Kat Says:

November 20th, 2007 at 11:51 pm

no need to be insulting dubby. i’m not sure how many people think to check out fungi.com. congradulations for being in the know, and thanks to inhabitat for educating many more people about it. also, it’s worth noting that they’re reporting on what appears to be an innovative, previously unutilized combination of hair and mushrooms, so i guess the article really is news-worthy.

JS Says:

November 21st, 2007 at 11:38 am

dubby’s right about fungi and mushroom remediation (i’m not bashing anybody…). the bioneers have a fantastic book out about “Nature’s True Biotechnologies”, with Paul Staments and another “Bioneer” doing this sort of remediation.

really awesome stuff.

fUSION Anomalog. » Blog Archive » Hair & Shrooms vs. Bush & Oil Says:

November 21st, 2007 at 3:22 pm

[…] 12 weeks to absorb all of the oil, converting the oily hair mats into nontoxic compost. [+] Explore posts in the same categories: oil tanker, hairstyles, […]

70percent.org » Blog Archive » Oily Hair Says:

November 27th, 2007 at 2:18 am

[…] story about how hair mats and mushrooms are helping clean the SF Oil Spill. I hope they are doing something similar in NY. Thanks Maggie […]

8 Foot Catfish Caught in Cambodia and Other Strange Environmental News » ecoble - ecological design, green innovation and environmental sustainability Says:

November 27th, 2007 at 4:02 pm

[…] Cleaning Up Oil Spills with Hair and Mushrooms? The recent Cosco Busan oil spill in the San Francisco Bay may have just met its match in an eco-cleaning solution that uses human hair and mushrooms! A group of intrepid volunteers has embarked on a project to clean up oil at San Francisco’s beaches using an unusual, yet totally organic, method of waste removal: Spread the Green These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]

Lee yujin Says:

December 16th, 2007 at 1:49 am

I’m korean and interested in this contents.
In Korea, There were VERY BIG OIL SPILL!!
So I want to inform the people of ‘Usefulness of HAIR’
But I can’t find photos how they were used.
And I quite don’t know that mushrooms can use this situation!!
I want to know about that in detail.
Give me touch with my mail.

HELP ME EVERYBODY!
HELP CLEANING THE ENVIRONMENT!

John Dvorak Says:

February 4th, 2008 at 10:53 pm

My barber has been collecting hair cuttings to donate for the mats used in oil spills.
Where can this hair be taken or who can be contacted to have the hair picked up?

aravind Says:

February 7th, 2008 at 8:18 pm

dude are you kidding me that is freakin’ awesome that you can use human hair and mushroom to remove oil of anything. i have never heard of something like this in my life.

qther Says:

February 18th, 2008 at 11:41 pm

why not a sponge insted of a hair bal???

Rapsiel Says:

February 18th, 2008 at 11:54 pm

…wow…must be hard work..you go people that helped!!!

alana * Says:

March 13th, 2008 at 9:52 pm

i think this would be great BUT…………….do you have enough hair to do it ??
or will all humans have to shave their hair off so you can save the water ecosystem????

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

Please note that gratuitous links to your site are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments.