New Oil Spill Clean Up Method, Guess What?

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There are many conventional ways to treat oil spills, both at sea and on land, but some of the strangest include human hair and chicken manure.
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Sources:
doi.org/10.5897/AJEST2019.2669
webharvest.gov/peth04/2004101...
doi.org/10.3390/environments7...
doi.org/10.14719/pst.2019.6.4...
www.sciencedaily.com/releases...
www.noaa.gov/education/resour...
doi.org/10.3390%2Fmolecules25...
response.restoration.noaa.gov...
doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.201...
time.com/6262631/philippines-...
www.theguardian.com/environme...
matteroftrust.org/clean-wave-...
doi.org/10.3390/pr10061224
Image Sources
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[@SciShow]

Visit brilliant.org/scishow/ to get started learning STEM for free. The first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium subscription and a 30-day free trial.

[@josephvanname3377]

But does Brilliant have a course on reversible computation?

[@markadams7046]

It was a barber who came up with the idea of using human hair to clean up oil. I remember seeing a news story about it on one of the major networks years ago.

[@davinbrown3072]

Same thing Dude this is the first time in a while. I’ve seen scishow late to the party.

[@markadams7046]

I wouldn't say they are late to show. Not everything that they talk about has to be so recent, and since they are talking about a range of various types of oil clean up, the ideas didn't all come up at the same time.@@davinbrown3072

[@korbindallas4552]

Did this guy keep a bucket of hair in his garage for oil spills?

[@markadams7046]

He was barber and while watching news of an oil spill, he noticed like otters and such who swam in the oil getting all that oil in their hair, so he thought he could put the hair from his shop to good use. He experimented by getting a kiddie pool and putting oil and water in it. He then put hair in nylon stockings and tied the stockings together and put it in the pool to see if would absorb the oil. He then pitched the idea to some university I think (can't remember).@@korbindallas4552

[@anthonywolf943]

I've seen them in use!

[@chris2746]

ABsortion vs ADsorption might be confusing verbally, but makes sense if you think of adsorption as a portmanteu of adhere and sorption

[@CWorgen5732]

Like your adductor and adductor muscles.

[@YEs69th420]

@@CWorgen5732 Maybe try that one again

[@TheTyutyu3]

That makes sense for the ad but not so much for the ab unless I'm not understanding

[@marcuswillbrandt5901]

​@@TheTyutyu3Because it's wrong. Both cone from latin, "adsorbere" to pull something to you and "absorbere" to swallow something

[@davemi00]

Tornado Warning vs Tornado Alert 🤔?

[@medusianAllure]

Small correction/addition: peat moss is the semi-fossilized stuff dug up from under bogs. It's very unsustainable. Sphagnum moss is the live plant that turns into peat moss when it dies and decomposes in a bog.

[@juliabosse14jb]

Peat moss is just dried peat that is mainly composed of sphagnum and it's sourced from bogs because sphagnum moss is a keystone species for bogs. To fossilize it would need to be trapped under layers of sediment for about 60 million years, slowly turning into lignite. But yes draining peatlands to harvest peat is a big no no

[@BreadCancer]

It's not partially fossilized, it's partially decomposed. Over time with pressure, peat eventually turns into lignite, which is the lowest grade of coal. But that is a different process from fossilization, where the organic material is replace by mineral over time. Natural peat is an unsustainable fuel source due to its low accumulation rate. However "peat moss" as a term can mean both sphagnum moss, or peat composed of sphagnum moss.

[@juliabosse14jb]

@@BreadCancer you explained that so much better than I could have. Thank you! Are you in geosciences by any chance? I've been taking a few geol classes but my major is environmental sciences... I'm debating switching over so if you have any advice I'd love to hear it!

[@jase_allen]

I heard about the hair idea way back when the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was being cleaned up in the Golf of Mexico going on 15 years ago. But by the time I had heard about it, the organization that was collecting hair had said they already had too much and stopped accepting more for a while.

[@omatic_opulis9876]

golf⛳

[@willythemailboy2]

I know my barber was collecting garbage bags full of floor sweepings at the time. Clippings are much better than long hair as they have more surface area.

[@jase_allen]

@@omatic_opulis9876 I have ADHD and dyslexia among other things. Be grateful my comments are as readable as they are.

[@PBurns-ng3gw]

The Golf of Mexico is the name of a semi-racist mini golf course in South Carolina

[@EggplantHarmesan]

@@PBurns-ng3gw Bet im going

[@gergsmail01]

If hair works, would feathers work? I've seen what waterfowl look like after swimming through oil spills... maybe make feather dragnets?

[@BloodAsp]

Perdu got you on a scholarship yet?

[@rolfs2165]

I'm also wondering about sheep's wool that isn't good enough to be used for clothes. @@BloodAsp Chicken slaughteries have a lot of leftover feathers as byproduct, I'd imagine. So why not do something with those?

[@BloodAsp]

@@rolfs2165 to be clear, it was a compliment. Perdu farms chickens. They would stand to profit from this.

[@ten-hx2xi]

@@rolfs2165i think the lanolin in sheeps wool might mess w the ocean, plus sheep wool unless its cleaned is actually pretty oilly near the sheep skin, this is why we sheer em since they dont have mountains to rub out on to sheer themselves, otherwise theyd get rashes, but maybe youre right! the already treated stuff thats scrap, or even maybe scrap clothing? good idea ❤

[@garyhenderson7334]

Those seabirds do seem to soak up some oil.

[@TheStudioChibi]

Learned new things about the peat moss and chicken poop but it was very funny to have the human hair mats phrased as a new thing when every salon I've gone to in the last decade sent off their hair for this.

[@ravioliis_]

been loving the new backgrounds recently. fun and pleasing to look at but not distracting

[@AlexirLife]

You forgot the mushrooms!!!! Paul Stamets demonstrated the use of fungi to clean up land based oil spills!!! I remember an Australian show about 20 yrs ago called The New Inventors that did what was on the label. They had a guy on there making hair booms for oil spills. Certainly not a new idea

[@AuntieDawnsKitchen]

Is there anything oyster mushrooms won’t do for us? It’s also used (sterilized) as building insulation.

[@TiredMomma]

On an epidsode with Mike Rowe, he visited a hair museum in Kansas City, Missouri. It was because of that epidsode I later learned about someone else, collects donated hair to help with oil spills, and did try to help with that one big oil spill in the Gulf. But yes, the issue was on how to collect the hair as it begins to sink.

[@freedomcat]

booms with floatation devices. Check every day and replace as needed.

[@lirachonyr]

Why did the chicken cross the road? To poop on the oil spill and save the environment!

[@Welsh7133]

Real swell of that chicken, I tell ya

[@nicksamek12]

Thanks Tangents for the scishow episode idea!

[@soulsbourne]

Yeah... Tell that to the vegans

[@mayaenglish5424]

​@@soulsbourne Using Human hair would be vegan. It shouldn't be THAT difficult to organize some sort of collection agency for castoffs from barber shops/ salons.

[@alfamaize]

If there are microbes in chicken poop that consumes hydrocarbons, has anyone tried to use it to decompose (safely) plastic? Even if it takes a long time, it needs to be done.

[@pheart2381]

But would ingesting liquid plastic rather than microplastic be less harmful? Liquid plastic ingredients might even pass into organs that microplastic cant due to its molecular size.

[@salemsaberhagan]

​@@pheart2381they're not suggesting that we feed plastic to chicken. They're suggesting we try to bury it in chicken poop.

[@feuerling]

For certain plastics we have already found microbes/enzymes that digest them, it's just a problem of scale and cost. Some examples: Wax worm enzymes can break down polyethylene, and mealworms styrofoam. There's an artificial strain of e. coli that breaks down PET, and a different microbe that can digest nylon. And some fungi that eat polypropylene.

[@feuerling]

​@@pheart2381 the plastic would be broken down and recycled in dedicated facilities, not out in a field where it ends up in food and water.

[@theninja4137]

​@feuerling I think you covered a thing that is easy to forget about if you're not (professionally or as a hobby) particularly interested in materials: plastic is not equal to plastic. Plastic materials that look essentially identical can have very different recycling methods, pollutants during manufacturing, environmental dangers if improperly disposed, ... I couldn't visually tell a PE yoghurt cup from a PS one, but as far as I know it makes a big difference in recyclability, so I look up any new brand I try and try to avoid PS ones

[@zelousfoxtrot3390]

Every hair salon should have a 'recycle' bucket to collect hair for this. Make the oil companies pay for shipping.

[@Berkana]

Does it have to be human hair? How about fur shed from huskies and golden retrievers? I contend that if there were collections for the fur of these animals, we could get a lot more of it a lot faster.

[@LinguisticG4m3rBoi_qy1yn]

Yay New Video!

[@bobthegoat7090]

A clarification: A boom seems more like containment than actual cleaning. Right?

[@daphnereal3129]

That icon transported me back to middle school 😂

[@jeffreywickens3379]

What about feathers from poultry processing plants, and wool from sheep?

[@TiggerIsMyCat]

I think sheep wool is already naturally kind of oily? So maybe it would be able to pick up less?

[@lakealin]

I was gonna suggest fast fashion!

[@rolfs2165]

@@TiggerIsMyCat You can wash it out. Lanolin (wool fat) is actually used in pharmaceutical cremes and such. That's also why wool clothes need special detergents that add back some lanolin.

[@asmith8692]

Not mention that under belly wool isn't used for spinning. I believe that under chin wool also isn't used for spinning due to length. There are companies that use wool waste to create blown insulation that is more efficient than fiberglass insulation. And for anyone wondering, wool is naturally fire retardant. My sister was researching this when replacing the insulation in the attic.

[@theninja4137]

​@@asmith8692 fire retardant - that's why my campfire blanket is 100% wool. Don't feel like turning into a flaming ball of polyester if a spark flies the wrong way

[@Aaa-dv3oi]

I feel proud to say that I already knew this!😁😁 but I love sci show videos anyway

[@Rubrickety]

Immediately after watching this video I shaved my head and replaced my hair with a combination of peat moss and chicken poop. It's possible I missed the point.

[@Andrea-kx1mj]

Milkweed, the plant that mornarch eat is a great oil spill cleaner.

[@TimeSurfer206]

Thank you for reminding me I need to buy some seeds.

[@curtismmichaels]

I never thought calling a process chicken sh*t would be a good thing.

[@ARandompersonMK2]

Isn’t the joke chicken but

[@Kaiclysm]

It’s supposed to be, “Guess what? chicken butt!”

[@bbbenj]

Thanks...

[@lanamarie8861]

Does coco coir work well too, instead of peat moss? More sustainable

[@galenanightfire]

What about Coconut Coir (the kind that is used in composting toilets). It’s pretty absorbent! But it may also absorb water just like peat moss.

[@ethannunya3285]

I like the new set

[@grassfolk]

It’s funny when you spot a change of thumbnail

[@plat6164]

Great thumbnail humor

[@roeesi-personal]

Yes yes the breakdown of oyel in contaminated soyel (I'm sorry your accent is totally valid it's just really funny for me for some reason)

[@exosproudmamabear558]

There is a saying in Turkish usually to ungrateful husbands or children. I made my hair a broom for you. Now we can do it literrally.

[@TaLeng2023]

Your comment reminded me of Fantine from Les Miserables. She cut off her hair to make it into sweater for her daughter.

[@General12th]

Hi Stefan!

[@HunniebeeGames]

I have been wondering how/where I can donate my hair specifically for oil spills for a while now. Any organizations in Canada?

[@toneyaperven]

yes

[@stevey_z]

Best method to use and spill less oil

[@nebimik]

Hello. I'm doing a graduate work on this theme (cleaning oil spills ;)

[@mathewwright4129]

Nice.

[@davemi00]

Rapunzel, Rapunzel we need you

[@hollywooddied666]

Interested in knowing what you call synthetic clean up of oilspill?

[@HaloHighlightz]

0:17 I read the title but I literally thought that was a painting until I noticed the grass (currently redecorating 😅)

[@MaFritz101]

Can the hair and peat methods be combined to increase efficiency?

[@TheSuzberry]

What about wool that is unsuitable for garments?

[@haydenshaw627]

I've seen a commercial way back about Native American hair and how it's so absorbent.

[@KreigsMarine2]

So what happens to the oily hair after that? Where does that go?

[@NailahRoberts]

What about torrefied straw pellets?

[@Generic42]

I’ve been using Cherokee hair tampons for years

[@annekabrimhall1059]

This has been available for a decade. The reason it’s not used is because nobody makes money selling it, like when you sell plastic booms! Saying that the hair might sink is an excuse! Often they add chemicals to force the oil to sink to the bottom to contain it.

[@lc.rr.ss.23]

Agreed, if hair sinks and peat moss floats, and they both clean the water, why not weave it together or something! They could make matts with hair, moss, and like someone else suggested feathers. That's too simple though, and renewable, and wayy better for the environment!! And the rich get keep getting richer...

[@jessicagalvin4598]

I think it’s lesser known because of corporate greed. Those shady oil companies cause a spill through negligence and they get a monopoly on fixing it.

[@ecurps1]

Then combine hair nets with boom floats. And hire some people with textile experience to trouble-shoot the weaving and texture viability. Just because a type of hair isn't that good at adsorption doesn't mean it can't be used in mats that absorb instead.

[@KisekiGamer1]

Dish soap works wonders as well

[@crisfer22]

I wouldn't try that in the ocean

[@anna9072]

I know I’ve used wool to clean up small oil spills on my property. And while quite a lot of human hair probably goes to waste and could be used for this, there’s far more wool that goes to waste every year. Sheep HAVE to be shorn every year, producing anywhere from 3-14 pounds each, and a lot of this just goes to waste.

[@officialxokfanaccount4774]

hellooooo, just here to say matter of trust has locations all over the world and donations can even be picked up near your house!!

[@user-jm9iw6mm9o]

Yea

[@kiyoshikusama4178]

What about mycoremediation for terrestrial oil spills?

[@Nerdorkgeek]

Ayyy I remember this Tangents fact

[@Tfin]

Hi! I'm here to throw off your experiment's data collection! When I clicked on this video and added it to my "Watch Later" list, it was "chicken butt." I am now watching it when it is "wet hair woman." Neither thumbnail had any influence on my choice to watch this video. I am subscribed and watch most of your videos, generally ignoring only the ones which are compilations.

[@runkelpokk9]

so how much hair do you need to clean up 800k liters of oil spilled into the sea?

[@alanlarsen3525]

Chicken butt thumbnail was better, sister and I lold

[@purpleghost106]

Worth reminind everyone that even the most cleaning we can manage still leaves a LOT of damage. Birds that even get touched by oil will be toxified (cleaned birds usually die within a month) Peat moss bogs are one of the best carbon sinks we have, so if we have to pick, def go human hair. But please, let's try to speed transitioning off oil ASAP

[@ivytarablair]

TIME FOR THE STRATEGIC HAIR RESERVE CAVE.

[@lh3540]

Based on my floors, vacuum, and drains, I seem to be capable of producing and endless amount of 3' long hair. What is their asking price

[@margaretford1011]

I once lived in an area that was experimenting with using chicken poop as a farm fertilizer. WORST STENCH EVER.

[@willowfuhrman708]

I’ll take the thumbnail as the answer

[@daniellemurphy9755]

There is a company that already does the hair mat thing.

[@Icy-Freezer160]

now give us methods to spill oil

[@FrankBoston]

Can of oil + foot

[@Randy-Lahey]

Ship

[@GGray.]

Oil companies already got that covered, no need to worry about it.

[@josephkehler5241]

There's an interesting Video by tom scott about fish oil And tides

[@princessbitch96]

Step one: Trust BP

[@Dyejob01]

I wonder if we can convert dog hair into the same thing since some breeds shed so much ❤

[@Mantades]

I tried to google it but it just gets more confusing. On one hand hair absorb water (up to 30%), on the other hand hair are hydrophobic. So if I understand it correctly, unwashed hair have a thin protective layer that makes them hydrophobic to some extent, but when you wash them, the layer disappears and hair take water in. Though it still doesn't seem to explain why rain droplets actually soak in, rather then slip down the hair and fall down without leaving any wet spots. What is with the hair and water relationship? Can someone explain it?

[@crisfer22]

There is a lot of variability depending on how open the cuticle is (from damage or just naturally) and I think time in contact with water might also be a factor, so the longer it is the more it swells and that opens the cuticle too. So dry undamaged hair is pretty hydrophobic, wet damaged hair not so much.

[@aroundandround]

At the beginning of the video, I thought the thumbnail was pointing to chicken’s feathers to use them like hair.

[@MagicOfDark]

I saw the thumbnail and I thought, "throw all the chickens into the ocean to soak up the oil? I know that can't be right"

[@lhinarizona6658]

I liked the south side of a north bound chicken shot better. :P

[@marksteers3424]

Birds - particularly sea birds - seem to soak up a lot of oil when they are victims of an oil spillage. Could we not use feathers in the same way as human hair?

[@buidelrat132]

Bird feathers soak up oil pretty well too for similar reasons. 😈

[@klocugh12]

Someone: You are chickens*** Me: at least I can clean up oil spills then.

[@Jansie_NL]

Ah! I always wondered how it was possible for fatty hair conditioner to actually stick to the hair when it's all wet and oil-free from the shampoo.

[@fourcatsandagarden]

Pet hair can help too - i know of a plce that takes hair donations to make mats

[@Charlesbakowski]

My beard could take Exxon-Valdez to task.

[@SabethRavenwing]

I wonder if anyone has tried to use bird feathers? Duck and goose would likely work best but they have value, but maybe chicken feathers as a meat byproduct?

[@poizonix8765]

This whole subscription thing is based on trust. I subscribe and I trust that you don't randomly throw chicken butts on my front page.

[@mayaenglish5424]

See that was foolishness on your part. Had you never seen anything Hank Green has ever been a part of? 😂

[@coffeediction]

dang what happened to sound? its so scratchy and "painful" xD Had to drop the volume to 1% or so to have it bearable. Others are fine, but this one's weird, its like it misses all the bass.

[@snackplissken8192]

I hear Lindsey Graham may have predated SciShow in advocating that environmentalists put their heads into an oil spill, but I suspect that may have just been a colorful southern metaphor on his part.

[@bradlesc1000]

firs time i laughed at a thumbnail ngl

[@irifhir]

2:54 "plan a head" i c wut u did there

[@outdoorsy01]

This was a thing years ago...

[@nenaj8053]

Rubbing hair in your eye - after it has gotten 🌶️ in it - will remove the chili oil from the eye too!

[@JosephKeenanisme]

mycelium aka mushrooms for sills on land.

[@bglrj]

If I miss a day shampooing, I prove this hypothesis.

[@05Matz]

Peat moss is a fossil product (made by nature through geological processes converting biological matter far slower than it's already being used) generally taken from delicate ecosystems, so human hair sounds like a better avenue. Save the peat for where we don't have good alternatives. Still, however we clean up the negligent releases, the liability of all these risks and costs has to be shifted from society as a whole onto the ones profiting from oil extraction. Not just the occasional spill cleanup operations, but the evacuations, the lost biodiversity, the infrastructure that needs to be set up to respond to these events, the 'regular' ongoing climate change, the air pollution, all of it. We can't keep letting companies outsource their negative externalities onto everyone else. Even if you don't care about the environment or public health, that's somebody else using a distorted position in the market to divert money out of your pocket and into theirs by forcing you to pay for the consequences of their business practices. Everybody should agree that's bad. The basis of even the most hardcore 'free market' economics relies on the strict assumption that that doesn't happen (more realistic models on the explicit notion that it "wouldn't be allowed to happen" by the government), the math they use to declare their system 'optimal' explicitly doesn't balance if it it's possible to do that (or for your business decisions to provide an uncompensated benefit to a third party eg. by building beautiful buildings instead of cheaper ugly ones, but that's another issue)!

[@yellowflowerorangeflower5706]

Cool

[@pinkace]

Chicken poop! Never would've imagined!

[@ginnyjollykidd]

Off these, only the chicken poop was explained in how it processes hydrocarbons to completion. I was hoping you would say how the contaminated hair would be processed. Like that it would be sent to be processed by other innovative methods. Yes, chicken poop would be a good source to process the oil cleanup. Yes, researching other poops woulds be worth looking into. I'd start with cow poop. Now why is it that cows are our supposed greatest greenhouse gas releaser? Methane? Find out what Microflora are involved in that. Pigs. How about geese and other fowl? Bats? But I'd first check out pigs and cows because they poop so much. But chickens are a good idea because of all the chickens we farm and eat. What to do with all the chicken poop? Put it in with earthworms: red wiggler compost worms and nightcrawlers which aerate soil. Stuff that red wigglers eat becomes pathogen-free and makes black gold "magic" compost for gardens. Next, see if organisms shown to eat plastic will work on sopped - up oil spills. Like mealworms and wax moth grubs. Most important, though, is to make sure the organisms that eat oil and plastic truly return usable, food-worthy nutrients to the spil. For that matter, have humans developed any microflora that reduce the plastics in our system? I.e.,should we have more plastic in us than is found?

[@rolfs2165]

Well, even if the oil-soaked hair can only be burned, you could still get electricity and heat out of that to use.

[@AlexKiritz]

Peat moss has tripled in price at Home Depot and Lowe’s just over the past two years.

[@ruud9767]

Chicken feathers - we have lots of those.

[@erikarussell1142]

Now I want a way to send some scientists my hair. I have past bum length hair when I’m 5’10”. I release soooo much hair. Let me help!!! Lol

[@Volundur9567]

I heard that rejected hair donations (they don't get accepted for wigs) go to cleaning oil spills.

[@jeaniebird999]

(Me, viewing the thumbnail): chicken butt? 🤔

[@bobthegoat7090]

I don't see why you compare hair floats to booms. Isn't booms a containment system, while the hair floats is a collection method? So, don't they have to be used together anyway?

[@casev799]

So no chicken? Oh yay chickens

[@Alexander1005]

Chicken poop

[@skittlesryan7862]

I wonder if human hair is better at picking up oil than cat litter. This might need experimentation.

[@aureusyarara]

IS THERE ANYTHING THE HUMBLE CHICKEN CANNOT IMPROVE??

[@ppp-ti1iz]

dawn ad with oil spill

[@bensoncheung2801]

👍👍👍