Hair
The owner of a hair dressing salon in the USA recently discovered that human hair is extremely efficient in absorbing petroleum oil.
He conducted a test in a child’s inflatable swimming pool by filling it with water and then pouring oil onto the surface. He then placed on the surface of the water a cushion filled with off cuts of human hair that had been gathered from the floor of his hair salon, and found that every drop of oil was absorbed into the cushion leaving the swimming pool spotless
Rather than being ‘absorbed’ by the hair, he found that it was ‘adsorbed’, which meant that the oil could be squeezed out of the cushion so that the cushion could be used over and over again.
This discovery has immense implications for dealing with oil spills at sea which detrimental effect on coastlines, on marine life, and on local ecologies. Barbers and hair salons all over America are now collecting the hair that they cut and are posting it to him so that more of these cushions can be made. /TE
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