1 . Lisa Gautier receives nearly a dozen parcels of human hair every day. With her San-Francisco-based non-profit organization Matter of Trust, Gautier turns donated hair into mats used to soak up oil spills on land, and booms(long tubes)used for spills at sea.
A standard way to clean up oil from land is to use mats made from polypropylene(聚丙烯). But polypropylene is a non-biodegradable plastic, and producing it ultimately means more drilling for oil. Hair, by contrast, is an environmentally friendly resource that can soak up around five times its weight in oil, according to Matter of Trust, and it is abundant.
Oil spills can pollute drinking water, endanger public health, harm plants and wildlife, and damage the economy. According to Gautier, the spills that hit the headlines only make up 5% of global oil pollution.
Megan Murray, an environmental biologist at the University of Technology Sydney, develops sustainable technologies to tackle oil spills. Her research indicates that as well as being biodegradable, human hair is often just as effective as polypropylene, and in some circumstances even better. “The hair mats are very beneficial to land spills,” says Murray but adds that when raw oil is spilled on beach sand, it is very difficult to absorb it using any of the materials she has tested. Another advantage of hair is that it costs less than conventional materials and is “globally available as a recycled material,” she says.
However, Murray cautions that hair mats are not a perfect solution, because they are single-use, and can only be dealt with by burning or by burying into soil which then isn’t suitable for growing food. She is now researching methods to extract the oil from a used hair mat, meaning both can be reused.
As the hair mat designs aren’t under patent, other groups have begun producing their own mats and booms. Gautier is pleased to see the movement growing. “Anyone can make a hair mat,” she says. “It creates green jobs, it cleans water, it reduces waste in landfill, and it’s promoting renewable resources.”
1. What do we know about polypropylene according to the passage?| A．It is environmentally friendly. |
| B．People need more oil to produce it. |
| C．It can soak up around five times its weight in oil. |
| D．People seldom use mats made from it to clean up oil from land. |
| A．Hair mats do no harm to soil after being burnt. |
| B．People spend more to make hair mats than conventional materials. |
| C．The effect of hair mats on terrestrial(陆地上的)spills is not very good. |
| D．Hair mats are not a perfect solution because they can’t be recycled now. |
| A．Most oil-spill events have received widespread media coverage. |
| B．Lisa Gautier donated her hair to soak up oil spills on land and at sea. |
| C．Megan Murray goes all out to make the hair mats and the oil extracted from them reused. |
| D．There are many other materials used to treat oil spills on beach sand besides hair. |
| A．Human Hair Is Being Used to Clean Up Oil Spills |
| B．A Perfect Recycled Material—Human Hair |
| C．Take Action to Make Hair Mats And Booms |
| D．How to Tackle Oil Spills |
