Straight from Matter of Trust. August 3, 2010

Just to keep everyone updated on the happenings in the hairy world of oil clean up, this is the latest email from Lisa @ Matter of Trust. It’s a little long but very informatiive!

[ Hi All -

So glad many of you are enjoying the daily updates on our facebook and twitter pages and our FAQ page. We don't want to spam you with our updates now that the crisis has calmed down, so we are just sending monthly email newsletter updates, and we are posting all blogs, newsletters etc. on our website, which is currently getting a facelift Thanks to amazing volunteers: Paul Goulart www.sayfamily and Eric Wood www.franwoodmac.com

As you know the Gulf spill has been capped and the mysterious oil is staying mostly offshore (except for where BP is present). The theories are that the oil is hard to find because some has evaporated and much has sunk as a result of the Corexit (dispersant) that was used. Oil based synthetic boom is now being sold in hardware stores in the Gulf and the Coast Guard worked with us to help with the awareness for pick up of oiled materials (including hair, fur, fleece & feather boom). When we give out boom we are also providing this 1 866 448 5816 number which we are told is good for pick up for the entire Gulf. When we say fleece we are referring to waste fleece - not the fine fleece fibers which are a commodity. We have stuffed about 1/10th of the donated fiber (hair, fur, fleece & feathers) thanks to hundreds of volunteers! We are consolidating the 19 generously, temporarily donated warehouses as it has now been over 3 months. That's an unusually long spill and the continued press and word of mouth brought in over 100,000 boxes, bags, truckloads of your donations! We have all seen how impressive renewable resources are! There is always more hair, fur, feathers and fleece when you start collecting it! We've been getting lots of emails from generous salons and groomers and farmers wanting to send more and we just can't take any until we have the room. This really highlights the issue that it is so silly to drill oil to make oil based synthetic boom to soak up oil spills, when we have so much of this absorbent fiber available, sorted and ready for use! There have been 2 more large oil spills in the US in the past week. And anyone who needs donated boom both in Michigan (Kalamazoo - we love saying that!) and the Mud Lake spill (2nd Gulf spill) can email us at team@matteroftrust.org.

We are still correcting the stories that came out a few weeks ago that said that hair and fur and fleece and feathers don't soak up oil and that our booms don't float etc. Luckily, they were quickly shot down by thousands of people testing it themselves - that's the thing about such a low tech material, anyone with a haircut try soaking up oils and can stop propaganda for only using synthetic solutions. No boom is working great on the Corexit mixed sludge, but our booms work just as well on the sheen, lighter oils and plumes in the water and it's free and renewable. As for floating higher in the water, many fishermen emailed us and suggested buoys and pool noodles saying if you can make steel ships float, floating a boom is really easy! But, interestingly, it was the sinking oil that got us looking at our floating booms in a new light. They have now been adapted to help with this crazy Corexit oil. We now have been donated thousands of recycled coffee bean burlap bags to cover the booms. Thanks to Tereson Dupuy of fuzzibunz.com a cloth diaper manufacturer with lots of sewing machines in Louisiana and John Nistler & Anna Keller of Gulf Coast Recovery for this design. With grommets added to make holes on the top for stringing to buoy line so the bags can hang down and catch more oil than simple floating boom. This may be helpful in Michigan too, as we hear the heavy pipeline oil is also going under their boom. An added benefit is that it looks better, a bunch of quilted burlap sacks instead of the hairy leg sausages. And the burlap is a sturdy covering that lets water in and out and lets the hair trap the oil. They can be used on river banks, shores, in nets, strung on line between piers etc. Please check out our photos and updates and please feel free to send in suggestions as we are changing our web site to please as many people as possible. We know that some ideas will counter others, but we'll try to put in as many as possible! This is a public charity and it is therefore yours to help create! We are still responding one by one to all your 41,000+ individual emails, and all phone messages - we're committed to getting back to each and every one of you! Thanks for your patience there are just a few of us plus volunteers here as we keep admin costs low so that all funds can go to the program needs.

We have also been suggested an idea that we would love to hear your opinions on. As we have so much fiber (hair, fur, fleece & feathers) and many of you have more boxes available, there is another similar use we could create. There are many, many marinas in the world and all of their boats could use little bilge pads to soak up and remove oil in bilge tanks. It has been suggested that green businesses start up that take these abundant recycled fibers, nylons and burlap and make these little pillows. We are working now with people in the Gulf to see if we can help the fishermen families by creating a program for this in the Gulf and having their pillows be sold to marinas elsewhere as a fundraiser . Anyone who wants to help with this idea please let us know! team@matteroftrust.org We need idea people and people who could use or distribute the bilge pillows, and would love to hear from anyone who wants to create this on their own in the US or in other countries. Also, people making bilge pads in different locations could collect from their local salons, groomers and farmers to cut out shipping costs. Please remember all you generous donors! WE PROMISE WE WILL EMAIL YOU WHEN WE HAVE MORE AVAILABLE WAREHOUSE SPACE - PLEASE DON'T JUST EMAIL FOR ADDRESSES TO SEND IN HAIR, we love to hear ideas from you, but as for the fibers, our first our priority is to make all this fiber into the most useful booms, to deploy booms as storms wash up oil and as we get access to more and more canals. After a completed cycle of donations is deployed, we will be ready to take in more. Ok all of you amazing people! Such a delight to be a part of this recycling movement with all of you!

Best wishes, Lisa Gautier www.matteroftrust.org ]

A Boom Making Kit, How Cute! July 4, 2010

Let me tell you…I have never in my life wanted a shower so bad, as I did yesterday after stuffing hair into pantyhose to make booms for the oil spill clean up effort. But after seeing what we had accomplished, well, it’s a small price to pay:) Being a Matter of Trust volunteer has it’s rewards.

I flew to my home in Venice, Fl., this week to move the donated hair out of my garage and turn it into booms for the clean up. I connected with Andrea Sorrenti of Andrea’s Organic Hair Studio in Naples, Fl., after seeing her event on her  Facebook page and she was kind enough to allow me to bring the donated hair to her boom making get together. I have been following her progress on Facebook after this began and watched as she hauled a ton of boom up to Louisiana last month with her husband Jaime, all of it made by her and her volunteers. She said she comes to work in the morning and has to clear a path to get to her salon door, because of all the bags of donations piled up in front. She also says she is getting burned out and I for one, can see why. She has taken on quite a responsiblity with this and in the short time that we spent together yesterday, I got the feeling that it is just her nature to want to help people. All people. A very genuine soul she is.

I packed my rented PT Cruiser plum full of donated hair and drove south to the park. We were very lucky that it was an overcast day and very little wind because I was soon to find out, and I should know this, hair loves to attach to sticky, sweaty skin.

The boxes that I brought were shipped from all over the south, and one small box in particular caught my eye.  A woman from Crystal Springs, MS., sent a very small bag of (assuming her freshly brushed) pet fur, a medium-sized bag of human hair (that I imagined was sacrificed for the effort), and a few pantyhose. I sat there for a minute looking at this small box and thought…a Boom Making Kit! How cute! And then I  thought about The Starfish Story (an earlier post) and how one person can feel as if they are making a difference in this world.

We managed to get maybe a hundred boom finished before it started to rain, so we tossed the boom in the bed of her pick up and drove to her home to store it, where it sounds like her and her husband will be hauling it to Pensacola where the oil is coming in now. Andrea pays for her own gas, takes time away from her business (without pay) and donates her spare time to make booms.

She is most certainly making a difference.

A Boom Making Kit!

Andrea and I making booms.

 

Donation from Kentucky

Full of hair boom!

More Volunteers Needed as Coast Guard Clears Hair Boom for Deployment July 2, 2010

Over 6500 hand made hair booms are finished since the collection started after the spill, and there’s plenty more to make. I will be hauling my “warehouse” (okay, my garage…) supply of hair down to Naples tomorrow and making boom with other volunteers (a Boom B Q!) and then bringing the finished boom to the local marinas. We are so happy to hear that the Coast Guard is going to deploy the booms and hopefully Matter of Trust can create more green jobs to support the boom making effort. I think the effects will be here for a very long time

More Volunteers Needed as Coast Guard Clears Hair Boom for Deployment.

Migrating Whale Sharks Move To Sarasota June 20, 2010

According to the Tampa News - mother nature is learning how to adapt to the oil spill.

 

An unusual amount of  Whale Sharks were spotted southwest of Sarasota this week. Scientists are wondering if they are adapting to the oil spill. Read the full story here.

 I just received some excellent news! The Army is accepting hair booms in Mississippi and possibly Louisiana. I’ll keep you posted:)

Marina’s Are Taking The Hair Booms. June 12, 2010

Enough hair was sent to make 25 miles of  boom! 10 miles are already finished and Matter of Trust is now concentrating on making and donating the finished boom to marinas who will take them. Just because BP isn’t interested in the hair booms, doesn’t mean they aren’t being used. Marinas, by law, have to have boom available on site and also waste disposal for the used toxic booms. Normally they have to pay for it and it can get expensive so volunteers of Matter of Trust are checking with the local marinas and bringing it in by the truckloads! Here you can see the hair booms at Moss Marina in Fort Myers.

http://www.nbc-2.com/global/Category.asp?c=170893&clipId=4852722&topVideoCatNo=97711&autoStart=true

The warehouses are on a temporary hold, which means no more hair is to be shipped at this time as they are now concentrating on making and delivering boom. Boom B Q’s are happening all along the coastline and I will be heading back to Venice next weekend or the following to volunteer. Ive got a garage full of hair and will rent a truck to bring it all up to Tampa to stuff it into pantihose!

YouTube – Rachel Maddow – 1979 Ixtoc Gulf Oil Spill Very Similar to BP Oil Spill – May 27, 2010 June 5, 2010

YouTube – Rachel Maddow – 1979 Ixtoc Gulf Oil Spill Very Similar to BP Oil Spill – May 27, 2010.

The Ixtoc Oil Disaster 31 years ago. June 5, 2010

I have never heard of this disaster, until now. My husband saw this yesterday on Fox News and I am SO glad he did! Here is a glimmer of hope to know that all is not lost. This must have been kept pretty hush-hush back in day and even now, searching for it took awhile. It’s good to know that mother nature can recover better than we think.

The Ixtoc flowed for 10 months and spewed out a record 140 million gallons of oil into the gulf.

Here’s a couple of links to check out.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/06/04/ixtoc-oil-spill-suggests-quick-fixes-deepwater-horizon/

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011931961_ixtoc23.html

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v290/n5803/abs/290235a0.html

Going local. June 5, 2010

Who spends most of their waking hours out in the coastal waters? Fishermen, thats who. Seems we’ve got some momentum going with some harbours in the great state of Florida!

#50 hair booms for Coastal Fuel and Marine Filtering, Bokeelia, Fl, -

#200 hair booms for Bokeelia Marina and Island Club, -

#200 hair booms for Tarpon Point Marina, Cape Coral, Fl., -

#200 hair booms for Moss Marine, Ft Myers Beach, Fl., -

#60 hair booms for Monroe Canal Marina St. James City, Fl.

“It is great to know that we can make booms and distribute them where they can be used regularly by those who may come in contact with petroleum oil in the water around boats, outside/above drain systems, down in the boat bilge”, says Ingrid Setzer of Matter of Trust. Ingrid is the coordinator in the Fort Myers area and the brains behind this idea. She said the people she spoke to today were so happy to be getting these free hair booms! The boat people are inclined to respond to situations out in the water and they never know what they are up against especially NOW!”

In Response to The Pioneer Press Article. June 1, 2010

I love press coverage, even when the facts and quotes are wrong. An article can create a kind of energy that swirls around it and can either suck you in or spit you out. I prefer to be spit out of this one.

Im just going to clear a few things up and give my response about Bob Starks article Monday in the Pioneer Press “Using tresses to sop oil? A big hair-don’t“, and then let this go. My hope is that in the not so distant future he’ll be writing a retraction story.

Bob makes it sound as if the salons around the country collecting hair for Matter of Trust (M of T) are deceiving their clients. How can recycling hair (that would go to a landfill) for a good cause be deceitful? If salons want to help, let them. They believe they are making a difference and it gives them something positive to talk about with their clients.

Matter of Trust NEVER claimed the booms would float. Ever. (Although you will see they do now!) They never intended to be used in the middle of the gulf, and as for the excessive manpower on the beaches for clean up? Well, what would be the difference between using hair booms or booms made of petroleum, ahem…plastic?

Bob was more interested in the downside of the story than the upside and I had to continuously defend what we are doing in a positive way. He said in the interview, and I quote, “this seems like a futile effort and a waste of time”. I couldn’t disagree more. Tell that to the student who stood in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square. I wonder if anyone told that boy it’s a futile effort and  don’t waste your time. My point here is small efforts are never wasted.

The Coast Guard never were the recipients of the hair. Matter of Trust was and is the only organization accepting hair donations.

BP had contacted M of T to use the booms and then recanted the next day. There was a big misunderstanding on BP’s part, but none the less the press release had hit the media and the damage was done. M of T decided to focus on the local level.

M of T does not do the clean up and is not volunteering for this, they only will provide the hair booms. ONLY TRAINED HAZMAT WORKERS can clean this up!

I was misquoted saying how sad I was because we wanted to be involved with BP. This is not true. I explained it was sad that BP wasn’t going to take the opportunity to use the hair booms and that their efforts to keep the oil from hitting the marshes was clearly irresponsible. (an earlier post).

I had explained that the “yet-to- be invented seaworthy rigging’ was already invented and they were testing it as we spoke. I forwarded the email to him with the video after the interview was over. He knew of this device and chose to ignore it.

And the very last, but certainly not least…. TOTAL MISQUOTE.

I did not say “perhaps we could wait out this disaster on the chance they would be better suited to some future oil spill”. I clearly said “I am certain that the hair booms will be used in the future because M of T will be there cleaning up this mess long after BP and the media forget about it”.

And you can print that.

Press Release From Matter Of Trust. May 26, 2010

I’m providing the link to Matter of Trust’s Press Release as there has been SO much happening this week…I didnt want to reinvent the wheel. I’m sure you’ve been hearing on the news that BP is not using the hair booms because they don’t float and they believe the hair could harm the environment (yeah, that’s what I thought too….). Well M of T had never said the booms float, they were meant more for shore and marsh clean up, not necessarily to be used in the ocean. There was a huge misunderstanding on BP’side of the fence in regards to this and they decided to turn down Lisa and the organization. Seems they’re not the only ones being rejected. I’m hearing some really disheartening things BP is doing down there and sooner or later a reporter will expose the deception.

Matter of Trust, staying positively focused and determined to help, is now involved with the local Parishs’ in Louisiana and are not giving up on the gulf or the residents, in fact they have refocused and have got a gentleman that designed a “floating boom holder” that they are testing as I write this. One of the reasons they wanted to work with BP was because of the clean up. BP is responsible for that monetarily and anyone else has to pay out-of-pocket. This is toxic stuff folks and disposal can be expensive.

So read the recent press release and know that Matter of Trust is not giving up on the gulf. In fact they will be there LONG after BP and the media have walked away.

View press release here.