Hairdressers donate human hair to “cut” water pollution

Photo: PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images

Most of the time we go to the hairdresser’s hair cut ends up in the trash, but now a group of activists use it to combat water pollution.

The Hair Recycle Project is an initiative of the non-profit organization Dung Dung that collect human hair clippings of belgian hairdressers to help clean up the waterways of the European country.

Thanks to this organization, the Discarded clippings become hair clumps that are used to absorb oil and other hydrocarbons that pollute rivers.

“The recycled hair offers many opportunities: treatment of pollution in Belgian rivers, manufacture of biocomposite products or treatment of burns thanks to its keratin”, explains the organization on its website.

Hair Recycle Project explains that collected hair mats can be submerged in drains to absorb unwanted particles before they reach the river, or used to clean up oil spills or similar debris left behind by floods.

Also, With the leftover clippings from the hairdressers you can make bags of biocomposite, a specific type of plastic bag that can be composted into soil or fertilizer.

How does hair help fight pollution?

According to the project, hair is lipophilic, because can absorb grease, but also oil and hydrocarbons (1 kg of hair can absorb up to 8 liters of oil).

A kilo of hair can absorb up to 8 liters of polluting oil and hydrocarbons. Each strand of hair, which is insoluble in water thanks to keratin, can support up to 10 million times its own weight.

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