Reusing waste human hair for pollution remediation

Use case

At present, waste human hair is a material considered useless in most societies and is usually found in the waste streams or openly at the landfills. Because decomposition occurs about after 2 years, these large volumes are left unattended openly in landfills that can create air and water pollution.

In Capilli, we aim to create value from waste human hair. One of the potential of waste human hair is for pollution remediation - including oil and chemical spillage especially in the seas or in drainage that eventually connects back to the seas.

Our potential target customers get by today with the use of more expensive and more synthetic and petroleum-based products for oil and chemical spillage. Meanwhile for drainages in urban streets, there is close to no efforts made by the local governments in addressing this potential threat. With the Value Chain creation for Waste Human Hair, we aim to introduce cheaper and more sustainable alternatives to raw inputs for different industries (including those in agriculture, construction, textile, fashion and cosmetics, biomedical, chemical, and many more).

Why unique?

We are pioneering this waste human hair recycling in the Philippines. The waste material itself is abundant and cheap. We are the first one to do large-scale trading and R&D planning for by-products from waste human hair that would cater to uses in various industries like those related to agriculture, biomedical, pollution control and remediation, and composite materials manufacturing to name a few.

For hair mats for oil and chemical spillage, what makes it unique and better than usual synthetic and petroleum-based mats are:

1. Hair mats are more sustainable
2. Faster than any polypropylene booms
3. More adsorbent vs synthetic mats
4. Very sturdy and can be driven over by trucks and ski equipment. They can survive the elements and are hydrophobic.