Want to help get rid of the oil spill off Oriental Mindoro? Donate your spare hair.
A local barbershop in the provincial capital, Calapan City, is doing just that, collecting cut hair to help clean up the oil hitting the province’s shores.
“Hair, surprisingly, turns (out) to be a potent weapon against oil spills because of its remarkable ability to absorb five times its weight in oil,” Bruskos Barber Shop said in a Facebook post.
“[Your] hair shall be used in cleaning the oil spill,” it added, noting its initiative will run until April 4.
It’s not the first time a local business is rallying to clean up an oil slick.
In 2006, beauty salons and barbershops from different parts of the country collected hair and sent them to responders in Guimaras, after an oil tanker spilled over two million liters of bunker fuel in the Island.
Approximately 20,000 hectares of coral reefs, 9,900 hectares of mangroves, and 6,000 hectares of seagrass were affected by that oil spill, according to marine experts.
“The spill from an oil tanker near Naujan, Oriental Mindoro is spreading to more areas and had already reached the municipal shores of Pola, Pinamalayan, Gloria, and Bongabong,” the barbershop noted.
It also said that 10 percent of its gross sales will be donated directly to the affected families.
The oil spill has also reached the shorelines of towns in Oriental Mindoro, Occidental Mindoro, and Palawan.
The Philippine Coast Guard also confirmed the presence of an oil spill in Antique.
This was after the MT Princess Empress ship, carrying 800,000 liters of industrial oil, sank in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro on Feb. 28.