HUMAN MATERIAL LOOP

The Washington Post's 'climate solutions' reporter Nicolás Rivero on Feb 12, 2024: When Zsofia Kollar gets a haircut, she can’t help but think about all the precious material her hairdresser is sweeping into the trash...The United States and Canada throw out 32 tons of hair per day, according to a report from the waste management firm Green Circle Salons. But Kollar says there’s a better use for all those wasted locks: weaving them into clothing. In 2021, she launched a start-up, dubbed the Human Material Loop, to turn hair swept off the floors of salons and barbershops into fabric for clothes, curtains, carpets and furniture. ... There are two environmental advantages of weaving with human hair, according to Kollar. First, it keeps hair out of landfills and incinerators, where it would release greenhouse gases while rotting or burning. Second, it avoids the consequences of clearing land to grow cotton, drilling oil to make synthetic fibers or shearing wool from sheep, which belch tons of planet-warming methane. ... But all the processing that comes afterward is expensive, especially because Human Material Loop is a start-up producing fabrics in small batches. Right now, Kollar says, her human hair fabric costs more than wool, cotton or polyester. “But once we reach a full-scale production, we can provide a very competitive price,” she said.