Pesky Oilspill? Grab a Hairmat!
By Jenn | December 4, 2007
So there’s this San Francisco non-profit called Matter of Trust, which, as one of its many projects, collects human hair from thousands of salons across the country and sends it to Georgia to be woven into mats. These mats are then used to absorb used motor oil. The used, oil-soaked mats are seeded with oyster mushrooms, which thrive on and absorb the black gunk, and after three months the whole shebang can then be safely composted.
This is bizarre and absolutely wonderfully astounding as is– but toss into the mix 58,000 gallons of spilled oil in the Bay Area in early November, and you have a recipe for what might be the greenest oil cleanup possible. Look at the closed-loop system:
Hair, which naturally absorbs oil from air and water, acts as a perfect sponge… Once the mats are soaked with black gunk, oyster mushrooms will take over, growing on the mats and absorbing the oil… [National mushroom expert Paul Stamets] said the mushrooms will absorb the oil within 12 weeks, turning the hair mats into nontoxic compost… “You make it like a lasagna,” Gautier said. “You layer the oily hair mats with mushrooms and straw, turn it in six weeks, and by 12 weeks you have good soil.” The soil may not be good enough to grow carrots but is certainly good enough to use for landscaping along roads.
There’s a YouTube video of cleanup volunteer using the hair mats– while the video is devoid of sexy high-tech effects, the hairmats speak for themselves (but not literally. that would be wierd.) I am so totally digging this greenest of green processes, YouTube video of cleanup volunteer using the hair mats– while the video is devoid of sexy high-tech effects, the hairmats speak for themselves (but not literally. that would be wierd.) I am so totally digging this greenest of green processes, mycromediation! Goddess bless the mighty mushroom– tasty in soup and handy for breaking down PCBs. I find it so sweet when an entirely natural system like this– hair + mushrooms– handles a problem way more efficiently than the complex (and often chemical) systems we humans develop ever could.
Read a bit here for some interesting facts on ” ‘mycofiltration,’ the use of fungal mats as biological filters”
To donate hair: www.matteroftrust.org/programs/hairmatsinfo.html
Other cool Matter of Trust projects:
- “Solar Peace Sculpture:” A sculpture constructed of 120 oil barrels, with a solar energy panel mounted on each barrel. The solar energy produced from the panels will feed into the electrical grid of the city, with the monthly proceeds donated to various local charities.
- Peace of Mind Kits: Developed as an alternative to the now-ubiquitous “disaster kits”
[Image via the Matter of Trust website]
Topics: Waste |
that is so cool! I hadn’t heard about mycoremediation at all before - and as a remediation engineer, I should have!
who knew a haircut could be as useful as grad school!
This is the most amazing thing! I heard of the hair mats a little while ago, in passing, but didn’t realize they were being used already, and never heard of the mighty mushrooms doing such a great job to absorb the oil. That’s amazing! Thank you for sharing this!
The free market is so good at solving our problems.
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