Dog Hair Oil Spill. In addition to dog and cat hair thousands of pounds of human hair and pantyhose other components that are used to make the oil sucking hairmats and booms have been sent into the non profit from. Dog fur in particular was surprisingly good at oil spill clean up and felted mats from human hair and fur were very easy to apply and remove from the spills lead author of the study uts. The hair mats have been used in oil spill cleanups since exxon valdez but there don t seem to be any studies about how effective they are beyond nasa s initial assessment.
Mats of human hair and dog fur successfully absorb oil from hard surfaces but not so well from sand. Oil gets into our waterways from spills leaky vehicles chemicals dumped into storm drains accidents etc.
It s not soaking up the oil it s not blowing up like a sponge the oil is coating the outside says lisa gautier founder of the ecological charity matter of trust which runs an international hair for oil spills programme to collect off cuts from hair salons and pet groomers sheep farmers and individuals.
Dog fur is particularly good at cleaning up crude oil according to a new study investigating sustainable options to clean up oil spill disasters. Dog fur in particular was surprisingly good at oil spill clean up and felted mats from human hair and fur were very easy to apply and remove from the spills lead author of the study uts. Oil gets into our waterways from spills leaky vehicles chemicals dumped into storm drains accidents etc. Scientists have come up with a novel material for cleaning up oil spills on land.
