Material Innovations

Alpaca fiber to the rescue! (Sort of.)

Alpaca fiber has played a role in helping to clean up the Gulf oil disaster; at least it had good intentions.   Natural materials such as human hair (from salons), pet shavings, wool, feathers, and alpaca fiber were stuffed into nylon stockings and used to make booms that absorb oil.   Even though BP did not use these booms in the long run, as they were not the right form for floating in the ocean, the idea still is a valid one.  It just needs a different form in the future, or can still be used on coastlines or in uses where it is not expected to float.  There have been innovations such as the Ottimat, an absorbent pad which is made of human hair.  This is a great innovation, but the ground level support from individuals to create homemade booms is still a triumph for community involvement to relieve a disaster.

A mountain of hair booms in Fort Walton, FL. Click image for more photos from Matter of Trust.org.

Now, back to the alpacas.  A typical alpaca shearing is split up into different sections.  Firsts, or prime, are the best, seconds can be worked with, and often the thirds are not useable for typical applications.  These fibers can definitely be used as absorbents for oil.   However, in the case of the gulf disaster, even high quality alpaca fiber from Glen Ridge Farm in Rhode Island was donated to the effort.

Not only for disaster relief, hair booms can be used to collect oil runoff after storms in city gutters.  The ecological public charity, Matter of Trust, points out:

“It’s a little silly to drill for oil to make oil-based synthetic booms to soak up oily run-off from streets after storms. Especially when there is so much recycled material available.”

Indeed.

Synthetic absorbent products, many of which could be substituted with natural fibers.

The natural absorbent capabilities of animal fibers can be seen in this Youtube video from Matter of Trust.

We need to keep taking advantage of waste products that can solve our problems. Currently Matter of Trust has plenty of material donated, but they are always looking for more and better end uses for these materials.

Average people can take part in this effort, but the most good will come out of it when larger entities get on board. Cities could convert waste absorption practices to natural methods. If there are many defined needs, such as in the construction industry, aquatic maintainance, etc. there will be a direct use for this natural fiber refuse from salons, farms, and groomers. This waste would naturally decompose on its own, so it is no problem. Rather it is the solution to lessen our dependence on synthetics.