3 Weirdly-Natural Ways To Clean Up An Oil Spill
For almost two weeks now, the entire world has watched in horror as millions of gallons of crude oil have spilled in to the Gulf of Mexico, forming a toxic sheen over an area thousands of square miles in size. Commercial and recreational use of the area has been suspended indefinitely while thousands of volunteers work to contain the damage.
I have nothing but the utmost respect and appreciation for these volunteers, many of whom are out of work fishermen, for being willing to tackle this nasty, exhausting task. But as someone who has never participated in this type of clean-up, I’ve been interested in exactly how they’re cleaning one liquid out of another.
Here are the 3 Weird-but-Natural cleaning methods I discovered:
Human Hair
Matter of Trust, an ecological charity based in San Francisco, has a hair mat, oil-spill program that uses human hair to produce super-absorbent mats that can be used to clean up messes including oil spills.
Since putting out the call for hair to help soak up the BP oil spill, Matter of Trust has collected 400,000 pounds of hair and sent it to addresses along the Gulf Coast.
Microscopic Plants
“Oil-soaked sand on beaches in the eastern Gulf Coast can be scooped up with heavy equipment, but the grassy marshes in the Mississippi Delta can’t be handled that way,” said Ralph Portier, a professor of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University told CNN.com.
Tides, wind and rain will drive the oil deeper into the marsh, down into the vegetative mat, making it impossible for humans to go in and clean manually, Portier said. But once the flow of oil is stopped — and no one knows when that will be — scientists will spread fertilizer to boost several species of microscopic plants that degrade hydrocarbons such as oil.
Pet Hair and Fur
Ok, this is a little bit like the first way- but if you’re not interested in lopping off your locks to donate for spill clean up, you might be more willing to donate some of Fido or FiFi’s winter coat. Pet hair will be stuffed into booms and used to skim the surface of the water, much like you would to get leaves out of a pool, except, y’know, they’ll be skimming off a horrible pollutant.
Matter of Trust has already gathered thousands of pound of pet hair from salons and groomers all over the world. Click her for more information on how you and your dog or groomer can help.
Image Credit: earthrehab.files.wordpress.com