Moultrie Tech Students Shear for Oil Spill Clean-up
 |
Moultrie Tech Cosmetology program student Courtney Coston, right, prepares to deposit human hair collected from fellow student Casey Hartsfield, seated, as Patti Clemons completes her new hairstyle. The collected hair is part of an MTC student-led project to assist with oil absorption in the recent BP drilling rig oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. |
The April oil spill caused by an explosion from a BP offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico has ignited a passion to help in Moultrie Technical College (MTC) student Nicole Jackson.
Jackson, an Early Childhood Care and Education program student, researched ways she and her fellow students could assist in the relief and clean-up efforts from the spill which occurred 130 miles southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana. She found a way to help using the daily remnants of one of Moultrie Tech’s instructional programs – human hair.
MTC’s Cosmetology program students see clients each day for haircuts, permanents and hair coloring as a part of their hands-on training to become licensed cosmetologists. Jackson’s research led her to the Matter of Trust, Inc. public charity which could use the MTC salon’s hair clippings in its international natural fiber recycling movement for use in oil spill recovery.
The technology was developed more than 20 years ago by hairstylist Phil McCrory of Huntsville, Alabama. While watching television coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, he noticed the difficulty in removing oil from Alaskan sea otter fur. He tested the effectiveness of using human hair to absorb oil in his son’s baby pool and created the Ottimat as a result.
Matter of Trust uses the human hair, in addition to animal fur, fleece and wool, to make oil containment booms by stuffing the hair into recycled nylons covered in mesh or by weaving it into hair mats. For over a decade, McCrory’s Ottimat company has partnered with Matter of Trust to orchestrate the hair recycling mobilization and stimulate green jobs and the textile industry in North America.
Moultrie Tech began this week doing its part to collect human hair to donate to Matter of Trust. The charity uses donated warehouses along the Gulf Coast committed to storing donated hair from all over the world while volunteers stuff the nylons and mesh to make oil collection booms.
MTC’s Cosmetology department will collect human head hair of any kind and in any condition, even color-treated and permed hair. For more information on the donation project and to make an appointment at MTC’s salon, call (229) 891-7014.
