Common Heart

May 9, 2010
GULF OIL SPILL

It is a devastating feeling to see something like the oil spill in the Gulf and wanting to help but not knowing how. Except to jump in your car and drive there and do something! I was meditating on this last week, feeling all that oil making its way to the beaches and coating everything. But then I felt a shift and thought - what if there was a way that we could pour out so much compassion and unified energy to that oil and those responsible for it that we could change how it came to shore? What if there was another form it could take that wouldn't be so devastating to the environment? I remembered hearing on the TV that instead of finding huge glumps of oil for SOME REASON the oil has been solidifying into small flat pieces of an asphalt kind of chip - easy to clean up and not hurting the shoreline. Wouldn't it be amazing if Mother Earth has decided to end this pollution herself and is shifting the chemical structure of the oil so that it can be cleaned up easily? My heart swelled with excitement about the possibility and with love, for it can only be with that amount of love and compassion that miracles can happen. So as we see and hear about this latest issue in the Gulf, instead of sending feelings of devastation, anger and helplessness please send COMPASSION, energy, love and GRATITUDE to our beautiful Mother Earth and all her WISDOM.

And here is a wonderful program that really does help, so if you can't drive there you can contribute from your very own home!

HAIR FOR OIL SPILLS PROGRAM

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INSTRUCTIONS - HOW TO SEND HAIR / FUR / NYLONS
INSTRUCTIONS FOR HAIR / FUR / NYLON DONORS
FIRST, please sign up with our donor database program www.ExcessAccess.org- Sign up is FREE & FASTThis way you have access to information on:- an emergency oil spill near your area requesting hair- a large scale emergency oil spill that needs wide scale donations- our storage warehouse - all warehouse mailing address changes- Everyone can sign up. Salons, groomers, individuals... Everyone!SIGN UP HERE- NEXT, set aside a designated box (salons usually reuse a box in which shampoo was delivered)- line the box with a plastic garbage bag so hair/fur can't slip out- ideally, donate shampoed hair (but certainly don't include filthy hair / fur)- any length is fine- every type of hair is fine (straight, curly, all colors, dyed, permed, straightened...) but only HEAD hair, please!- every type of fur / waste wool is fine- sweep in all clippings, JUST HAIR, but please NO OTHER GARBAGE (gum, metal clips, paper cups, wrappers...)- remember volunteers (sometimes young students) have to stuff this hair into booms and don't want to feel garbage or anything sharp- tie the top of the bag and tape the box shut- we also accept washed, used (even with runs) nylon stocking donations in a separate bag, please.- we also accept other "natural fibers" horse hair, feathers... again, please, no other garbage or contaminants in with the hair/fur/ wool fibers... - mark the boxes DEBRIS FREE HAIR / FUR or NYLONS- mail boxes in to the address below:Mailing address for hair, fur, wool... clippings and nylon donations are being emailed out to everyone who signs up. We are emailing in WAVES, so as to control the flow and not overload smaller warehouses along the coast. We are currently seeing about 500,000 pounds come in from all over the country, every few days. And volunteers are learning how to make a mile of boom a session!
ONE TIME HAIR DONORS - How YOU Can Participate: Individuals: Please tell your hair stylist / barber about our program and website. We love personal hair donations, but for practical reasons, hair in bulk from salons saves processing time.Teachers and classrooms: We love getting hair from schools! Please collect and mail all the hair in one bag, rather than lots of little envelopes, saves processing time. Also, you may want to check out our Teacher's Demo PagePet owners: Fur, horse hair and wool is fine. Fur is curly which helps more in making mats. It does seem that human hair has less natural oil and is more efficient in soaking up oil. So, we are finding the sweet spot of ratio fur to hair! Pet hair doesn't have to be shampooed - but we ask that it not be filthy, please.
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE HAIR NEXT?Loose hair can be stuffed into nylon stockings which we double up and tie together to make "booms" that surround and contain as well as soak up oil spills. See our youtubeBoom needs to be covered in strong meshWe get ours from DelStar Industrial Netting www.delstarinc.com (800) 531-5112Much of our funding goes to mesh. The best one for booms is:101407 Orange MeshRolls of 150 ft. @ $61.00 eachWe also sort through boxes of hair to make sure there is no garbage and then pay to send it off to nonwoven needlepunch factories to make batches of hairmats. These mats are for emergency oil spills and for oiled bird and mammal cages.We are fundraising for mat production and for our own permanent warehouse here in California to make hair booms. We also believe that collection kiosks at US harbors will provide green jobs and booms for emergencies. We aim to create a green job program with pathway out of poverty for those transitioning out of foster care (at risk youth 18-22 years old). To help please check out our contribute page.101407 Orange Mesh. It comes in rolls of 150 ft. @ $61.00 ea. Flyers for outreach: Please feel free to download and print our flyers. We made them just for you!Hair Mat Oil Spill FlyerStudent HandoutTeachers HandoutDID YOU KNOW? OIL SPILL FACTS
History of the mat & boom:Matter of Trust is collaborating with thousands of salons throughout the US and abroad, that donate their hair clippings to soak up oil spills. Last year over 2,600 oil spills occurred in the world. They weren't all are high profile, but most had an impact on the environment. Phil McCrory, a hair stylist from Alabama, first discovered how hair can help. He was shampooing an oily head of hair while watching TV coverage on the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. He noticed the fur on the Alaskan otters completely soaked with oil and it just occured to him. "We shampoo because hair collects oil." He began testing how much petroleum oil he could collect with the hair clipping from the floor of his salon. Phil then invented the hairmat which is made from purchased hair and felted in China. Please find Phil and our friends at www.Ottimat.com. For the last 10 years we have partnered with Phil and Ottimat to see if we can create a National Natural Fiber Recycling System so that we could make the mats here the way we make the booms.
The US has over 300,000 hair salons and each cuts an average of a pound of hair per day. Salons generously pay out of pocket for postage to send their swept up hair clippings to either our warehouse or where there are temorary donated storage spaces for emergency spills. There we make "booms" by stuffing hair, fur, wastewool, etc. into donated recycled nylons and mesh. We do the fundraising for this program and outreach through placing our posters in participating salons and with the help of the press.
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