Who knew that my dog’s mattes and tangles would finally have a purpose, and a very noble one at that!

The Hair Mats program collects donated hair clippings to create mats of hair that are used to clean up oil spills.

One square foot of hair mat (a half inch thick) can collect one quart of oil in one minute! Any type of hair can be used in the creation of these mats. Ideally shampooed hair is best. It can be your hair or your dog’s hair.

Hair stylist Phil McCrory developed this unique way of cleaning up oil spills to save the lives of marine animals. He then teamed up with Matter of Trust, an ecological public charity to form the Hair Mats Program.

"You shampoo your hair because it gets greasy," says McCrory.  "Hair is very efficient at collecting oil out of the air, off surfaces like your skin and out of the water, even petroleum oil. Hair is ad sorbant (as in "clings to" unlike ab sorbant which is to "soak up.") There are over 370,000 hair salons in the US and each collects about 1 pound of hair a day. Right now, most of that goes into the waste stream, but it should all be made into hairmats."

To participate click here

If you’re not ready to chop off your dog’s hair just yet, you can always try a detangling spray that will help you work out the mattes and tangle. Just spray it directly on to the matte and work out with a comb.