In France, discarded human hair from salons and barbershops find a new purpose - by being used as a reusable ocean oil cleaner in a new and sustainable recycling project.
In the town of Brignoles, located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France, a warehouse holds 40 tons of human hair, collected from salons as a part of an innovative ocean cleaning project. The warehouse also hosts the headquarters for the environmental group and recycling association Coiffeurs justes, or "Fair Hairdressers."
A Sustainable Solution to the Ocean Oil Problem
After successfully testing their solution in the neighboring Cavalaire-sur-Mer, the discarded human locks were packed into nylon stockings, creating floating hair-filled tubes deployed on the ocean to absorb oil pollution.
Thierry Gras, founder of Coiffeurs Justes and a hairdresser in the nearby town of Saint-Zacharie, tells AFP: "Hair is lipophilic, which means it absorbs fats and hydrocarbons." He also shared that upon approval from environmental agencies and labor inspectors, he is looking to start large-scale production of the hair-filled nylon tubes before the year ends, helping in the fight against oil pollution in French waters. Each tube, about as long as a forearm and can absorb up to eight times its weight in oil, will be sold for nine euros, or $10.50 each.
From the Brignoles warehouse, donations from Gras' own salon as well as those from Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and other parts of France, are repacked into two kilograms, or about four and a half pounds, and sent to another site. School dropouts and formerly-unemployed individuals stuff the hair into the stockings, and are paid for their services.
Gras also expressed plans to reinvest half of the profits in the Coiffeurs Justes employment center.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 26: Barbers from King's Cutz give haircuts beneath an awning outside their barbershop while observing safety restrictions on August 26, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.
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#NouvellePhotoDeProfil pic.twitter.com/HcEoWstC78 — thierry gras (@haircarvercom) July 8, 2020
Inspired by the Amoco Cadiz Incident, and Saving Pigeons Along the Way
Gras told AFP that he was first inspired to do something about pollution when he saw the Amoco Cadiz oil spill. In March 1978, the oil tanker ran aground on Portsall Rocks near the coast of Brittany in France. The tanker split in three, sank, and spilled more than 220,000 metric tons of oil. It was also among the first instances of human hair being used as cleaning materials in the following recovery process.
When he followed a career in hairdressing, Gras found out that there was not recycling facility for discarded human hair, which can also be used in a variety of other applications. Gras said that every hairdresser generates about 29 kilograms of hair waste on average, per year, mostly ending up disposed of as trash.
Just last year, researchers led by the National Museum of Natural History in France conducted a study that showed how discarded human hair led to missing toes among Paris pigeons. Surveying 46 sites in the French capital, they found that pigeons with mutilated feet were more common in city blocks with higher population densities.
If the birds can't get themselves loose, they become "stringfooted" - the hair stays, garroting the toes and cutting blood supply, eventually leading to loss of the extremities.
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