Valentin Loriot
University of Otago
Joe Cooper
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The innovation is based on the recycling of human hair for different purposes. Ecofhair focuses on using hair in a circular economy and creating a bilge fender made of hair whose purpose is to prevent hydrocarbons and oil to be realised in our waterways in the first place. Collect waste, create employment and depollute oceans.
In 2014, Thierry Gras, A French hairdresser based in the south of France, decided to stop wasting and throwing all the hair that he was cutting every day and started to find ways to give a second life to this endless resource. It was in 2015 that he created the non-profit organisation “Coiffeurs Juste” in the south of France with the sole objective of collecting hair and sensitising hair professionals about the characteristics of their main waste and its potential to impact climate change.
Human hair has multiple natural properties such as for thermal isolation, cement reinforcement, and fertiliser. But the main quality that Thierry is focusing on at the moment is, as he describes it: "It's one of the qualities of hair, it's lipophilic, so it absorbs hydrocarbons, that is to say, the hydrocarbons stick to it, that's why you can wash it, it doesn't absorb them." A single kilogram of hair can absorb 7 to 8 litres of oil and hydrocarbons. Hairs are being recycled and collected by over 5,000 hairdressers all over France and sent to a warehouse in Lyon where the following company is based and stuffed into nylon stockings to create floating tubes.
In order to commercialise this innovation, he co-founded ECOFHAIR in 2021 with the aid of SERPOL, a French independent group of 2,400 employees making a turnover of 410 million euros in 2020. That is when the creation of CAPISORB arrived. A brand new product that is to be put in boats’ bilge and ports’ petrol stations in order to adsorb hydrocarbons. It prevents hydrocarbons and oils from being put in oceans and seas in the first place.
Here is an example of tubes being used in harbours to adsorb floating hydrocarbons
As Thierry mentioned, "The initial idea of cleaning with hair came at the time of the Amoco Cadiz in 1978 when there was the oil spill." Local fishermen used this knowledge to mitigate the floating petrol on the ocean. The hair properties were already known by the common people as there were sponges made of hair to recover fat in the houses.
He also recognises that he got inspired by some organisations in the United States that were also developing this concept for a few years already, but that was new in the French market. The main purpose of this innovation is, "not only to be able to send help in case of an emergency as they did in Mauritius following the oil leak from the Japanese tanker MV Wakashio," where volunteers constructed improvised booms out of straw and hair from nearby hairdressers; but to act before the drama, to prevent spills at their source.
Thierry believes the technology may be used, not only to clean up oil spills, but also to continuously clean the world's waterways, including ports and rivers, of oil pollution.
"What motivates me, personally, is that I find it a shame hair is nowadays just thrown in the bin when I know that so much could be done with it"
The short-term effect is very easy to report as there is a pilot scheme at the nearby port of Cavalaire-sur-mer that has already proved the efficiency and the success of those hair tubes at absorbing the oil from boats that pollute the harbour. The other main effect is the slow substitution of the original similar product that is commercialised by other companies made of polymer, a synthetic substance obtained from petroleum. Those harmful products also don't have the same efficiency and can only be reused (when washed) up to ten times, in comparison with CAPISORB which can be reused indefinitely.
In the long term, ECOFHAIR has an ambitious desire to equip every boat and harbour with its innovation. When trying to measure the impact of hydrocarbons in our waterways, we come up with a problem. Hydrocarbon pollution is huge and has never been quantified in our marine environment. Broad estimations are based on 1 million litres per annum in France, more or less 20cl per boat per annum.
Another impact of this circular economy resides in its name, circular economy. The co-founder of ECOFHAIR is clear on the fact that "every country, even regions within the countries, have different needs and different problems". As he was born and raised in the south of France, close to the coastline, the use of that innovation to clean the Mediterranean Sea of hydrocarbons was his first goal. With the years passing by, he realised that each corner of the globe could have its own way of using hair in a local circular economy.
The creation of a brand-new business entity has been made possible with that innovation. ECOFHAIR created 4 new full-time jobs including reintegration programs. Because they launched CAPISORB on the market in 2021, they now have created a new design and re-invested in R&D to create product diversification and reach more markets. In fact, the initial product was designed mainly for boats, but now they are also reaching a new market with public customers being harbours on the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. This new product is designed to be put alongside the docks to prevent oil spills in harbours. Those new contracts bring the company to the light of media and investors as we've seen many local documentaries about the company rising up on a local and national scale. Being part of the SERPOL group, investors are more inclined to participate in this project whose vision is deeply integrated into the UN strategic development goals.
The potential of that innovation for the company is endless, as we described earlier, human hair properties make the development of ECOFHAIR very promising. Thierry told me that in his mind, this innovation will also be used to depollute soils, which would create new products, new jobs, new markets and a greater expansion internationally. He also mentioned ongoing new market openings around France that would help the company's future. The great scalability of ECOFHAIR is a real strength in the industry but the co-founder is conscious that he needs to surround himself with people having similar vision and ambitions.
ECOFHAIR has 3 purposes, develop a circular economy, promote depollution activities and support professional integration.
Socially speaking, the creation of the business came with the creation of new jobs, and many more to come in the future as the company is seeking to expand internationally. Thierry has a deep interest in helping others, and he puts a lot of emphasis on creating job opportunities for those who need them. He works closely with employment centres where formerly-unemployed people and school dropouts are paid to make the absorbent tubes. It offers a short-term solution for those people but Thierry plans to reinvest half of the sale price of the tubes in the employment centre to sustain this incentive in the long-term.
The promotion of sustainable practices among every hairdresser collaborating by sending their waste also has a huge societal impact. "Every salon should be aware that their main waste could have a second life that can save our ocean, it's my mission to bring that information to them". Every hairdresser participating in the collection and process of recycling hair obtain recognition from both customers and business partners as businesses take a step into more sustainable practices. Similar to the B-Corp certification, Thierry is trying to develop this process among salons to promote sustainable behaviour in this industry.
Environmentally, as we mentioned earlier, this innovation has great potential that is yet to be fully used. I personally think that the answer to human pollution resides in natural and organic solutions. Mother Earth has always had a way of solving problems naturally and this innovation is proof of that. What better than organic waste to depollute our oceans which are vital for human life? There are about a million people going to get their hair cut every day in all the 62,500 salons and 20,500 hairdressers at home. For Thierry, this represents an "endless resource that can contribute to saving the environment". As part of a circular economy, the main benefit is the ability of the company to turn waste into raw material that creates a solution without any treatment. As mentioned earlier with the case of Cavalaire-Sur-Mer, it is proven that it does prevent hydrocarbons from being released into the harbour and as the mayor of this town affirmed on national TV, he witnessed a change and he is advocating this project among other towns along the coastline. With the properties of preventing more pollution in our oceans, ECOFHAIR has the potential to make a real difference in our marine ecosystem and can drive a real change in our environment in the long term.
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ECOFHAIR is a French company that recycles hair coming from all over France from hairdressers and barbers that are part of the NGO “Coiffeur Juste”. They turn it into an innovative product that adsorbs hydrocarbons and oil spills where the demand is. The purpose of ECOFHAIR is to develop a circular economy, promote depollution activities and support professional integration.
The goal is to collect 50% of hairdressers (clean and sorted hair) in order to create a depolluting product called CAPISORB in a circular economy for marine and land life. The business also has a waste-to-energy conversion purpose by washing and reusing the hair as an insulator or/and material reinforcer to give a second and third life to our endless organic waste.
