Good morning friends,

I have little doubt that you have heard about the disastrous oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico which began with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform 3 weeks ago. With oil escaping at an alarming rate of 200,000 gallons (or more) a day, the world is searching for some sort of idea on how to stop it. But since they don’t seem to know what they’re doing, I thought it might be time to start looking for ways I could help.

That’s when I heard about Matter of Trust. They are a nonprofit based in San Francisco with several environmental programs; one of which is taking human and animal hair and turning it into oil mats and booms. The mats are then used during oil spills of all sizes and even in the cages of animals that have been covered in oil as they recover. Human hair naturally absorbs oil (dog fur not quite as well but still does a good job) and these products turn otherwise useless materials into something really fantastic. The mats are just woven hair but the booms are pantyhose pieces filled with hair. It’s just so smart.

Here’s a little overview about the work Matter of Trust is doing to clean up oil. At the end you’ll even see one of the mats in action and I have to say I was really impressed.

If you’d like to make a donation of hair, fur or nylons, you can find out how and where to do that on this page. The more you can put together at once to send them the better. So if your groomer or hair stylist isn’t doing anything useful with their hair, why not organize a collection box and once the big box is full, send it off as needed.

Mom’s been collecting my hair for a while now. I have no idea what she’s going to do with it…I’m not even sure she knows. But now I’m going to steal that hair and package it up with all the other hair I can find in the neighborhood. Furry dogs unite!

Have you seen any other creative organizations that are helping to slow the spread of this oil leak? Or do you know of other nonprofits that deserve to be mentioned? Please leave me a comment and I’ll turn my paws to their attention!

Hope you’re having a great week and lots of kisses to you!

Ayla