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Innovative Chileans utilize disposed of hair to tidy up coasts and waterways

Luisana Gil, a canine groomer in Santiago, Chile, has a great deal of hair on her hands she tosses away bags and bags of her customers' hair, which until just recently went directly to the land fill.

Now Gil is connecting her disposed of animal hair with Matter of Trust Chile, a group that utilizes human and animal hair to make tools that leverage hair's natural absorbent qualities to tidy local waterways of oils, heavy metals and even germs.

Matter of Trust's task, Petropelo, uses tube-like booms - constructed out of mesh and filled with hair - to draw in and trap oil in lakes, streams, coasts and other waterways.

A single kilo of hair can clean on average 5 liters of hydrocarbons, said Mattia Carenini, basic manager of Matter of Trust Chile, adding it can sometimes clean up upwards of 9 liters.

The impact is very powerful, he stated. We can all be part of it.

The mesh booms are put in waterways for as much as 50 days, Carenini explained, catching impurities by adhesion.

A comparable job by the group, Agropelo, utilizes hair to make woven mats that are used in soil to help keep soil wetness by reducing direct evaporation and conserving water utilized for irrigation, according to the group.

In the town of Laguna Verde, near Chile's port city Valparaiso, the group positioned 4 booms and a hair mat in a. stream bring greywater from a plant to the ocean. After about. a month, the devices collected 15 kg (33 pounds) of. impurities, Carenini stated.

For something we throw away every day, it's an extremely. rewarding thing to do, Gil, the canine groomer, said about providing. the hair a brand-new usage. It's outstanding how much we can help the. environment..

(source: Reuters)