Hairdressers across Belgium are sweeping the hair clipped from their clients, bagging it and handing it over to NGOs who recycle it to protect the environment.
For hair recycling projects, tresses or tresses are fed into a machine and turned into frosted squares that can be used to absorb oil and other hydrocarbons that pollute the environment, or to make bio-composite bags. I’ll change it.
Project co-founder Patrick Jansen explains that 2.2 pounds of hair can absorb 1.8 to 2.1 US gallons of petroleum and hydrocarbons. Said it can be absorbed in water.
“Our products are more ethical because they are made locally…not imported from the other side of the world,” he told Reuters. It is made here in
The project says on its website that hair has powerful properties. A single strand can support up to 10 million times its own weight, absorbs fats and hydrocarbons, as well as being water-soluble and highly elastic due to the keratin fibers.
Isabelle Voulkidis, manager of the Helyode salon in Brussels, is one of dozens of hairdressers across the country who have paid a small fee for the project to collect cuts.
“What drives me personally is that it’s a disgrace to throw your hair in the trash, even though you know you can do a lot with it,” she says, adding that one of the customers’ hair I combed and cut the book.