When simple things and the circular economy serve the environment ... Little is known about it, but hair has the natural virtue of being lipophilic, that is to say, it absorbs fat and hydrocarbons.
Recently, when the oil tanker Wakashio ran aground in Mauritius, the Coiffeurs Justes association, which recycles hair in order to fight pollution at sea, sent nearly 20 tons of hair to fight the oil spill.
This time, this association wants to tackle the ports of the Mediterranean.
Each year, a hairdresser produces, so to speak, thirty kilos of hair… Instead of ending up in the trash, the objective is to transform them into floating tubes to absorb the oil in the ports.
"We can use them in the event of a serious oil accident, as happened recently in Mauritius, but the idea here is to recurrently clean up all micro-pollution", details Thierry Gras, the hairdresser at the origin of this initiative and of this association which now has a network of 3,300 professionals who send it cut wicks.
It is then thanks to a reintegration company, with people far from employment or who have dropped out of school, that this hair is packaged in sausages in nylon stockings.
Tests are underway in the port of Cavalaire-sur-Mer.
But the project sees much further.
40 tons of hair are awaiting large-scale production of sausages.
In the long term, the sausages could be sold for nine euros, half going to this insertion structure.
"It is a rewarding process for employees since it is part of an environmental goal," underlines one of the supervisors.
Indeed, “the traditional method of blotters or polymer rolls is disposable.
Conversely, the hair strands are washable and reusable about ten times.
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Various river or sea ports in France have shown interest in ordering Var pudding.
In the meantime, the project must receive accreditation from the labor inspectorate for production tools and the water pollution control body, before the start of large-scale production, scheduled for the fall.