A team of environmentally aware techies led by V. Vishal has come up with a solution using human hair to clear the major Ennore oil spill.

Vishal, co-founder of software company Techbreakthrough in the City and has bookmyhairstylist app networking 200 salons, wants to replicate the model of Lisa Craig Gautier, who has pioneered in the use of human hair for oil spill management

“We came across MatterOfTrust.org, an ecological public charity initiative concentrating on finding day-to-day uses for naturally abundant renewable resources. US-based founder, chairwoman and president Lisa Craig Gautier has pioneered this technique, which has also been tested and approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency,” says Vishal said.

“We have almost all the hairstylists in the city under one platform, and when we visit their salons, we see the hair going to trash. Then the idea of managing the oil spill came up. We have contacted Lisa Craig Gautier, to replicate the working models here. We hope we will get their supporte. We are also trying to reach out to the Ennore Port authorities, “Vishal told Covaipost.

Jute sacks or nylon sacs (sausage shaped) filled with human hair can absorb the spill. “We learnt that the the surface area of hair, and the nooks and crannies along a hair strand could absorb oil. Hair is adsorbent and it doesn’t swell up like a sponge,” he said.

Interestingly, it all started with a brain wave of Phil McCrory, a hair stylist from Huntsville in the US, who had stumbled upon the idea when he was at his salon. While watching coverage of the Exxon Valdez supertanker oil spill, in 1989, he saw otters getting coated in oil. He then looked down at the hair clippings on the floor and it just clicked. MatterofTrust.org, which took the technology forward, is running an international programme, to clear oil spill using this handy technology.

“Accordingly, the hair and fur is stuffed into nylon tights to make sausage-shaped booms to string out along beaches. Hair soaks up fast; therefore it bobs just below the waterline. Fur and fleece bob and float on top of the waterline, so getting a mixture of booms is helpful in managing a spill” says MatterofTrust.org about this techology.

Vishal and his team are looking out for guidance from environmental groups and officials to lend them a helping hand to the clear the Ennore oil spill.