Press
Coverage
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FEBRUARY 4, 2008
Contact:
Lisa
Gautier
415 235 2403
lisa@MatterOfTrust.org
SAN
FRANCISCO BAY AREA IS REVOLUTIONIZING OIL SPILL CLEAN UP
SAN FRANCISCO... Matter of Trust, Inc., an ecological public charity, is
revolutionizing and greening oil spill cleanup through innovative thinking
that promotes environmental sustainability.
First,
we used mats made from human hair clippings to soak up the oil at Ocean
Beach from the Cosco-Busan Oil Spill and now we're showing that oyster mushrooms
eat oily-hairmats and can turn this hazardous pile into compost that can
be used for freeway landscaping! The conventional method for treating oil
waste is incineration, but this method is better for our air and the environment.
Matter of Trust in conjunction with Descend Salon and Innersense Organic
Beauty reach out to educate children of Sherman Elementary to the environmental
benefits of reclaiming hair for sustainable uses along with understanding
the importance of using products that support sustainability and protect
the environment.
WHEN
& WHERE:
Wednesday February 6th at 9:30am
Descend
Salon
2185a Union St
San Francisco CA 9412
Speakers: Lisa Craig Gautier founder of Matter of Trust, Greg Starkman founder
of Innersense Organic Beauty, Robert Atkinson of Descend Salon and Regan
Mahoney of Sherman Elementary.
Matter of trust, inc. Is an ecological public charity that links ideas,
sparks action and materializes sustainable systems. It's focus is manmade
surplus, natural surplus and eco-education.
For more information contact:
Matter of trust: Lisa Craig Gautier 415 235-2403
Descend salon: Robert Atkinson 415 440-6608
Innersense organic beauty: Greg Starkman 925 946-0476
For more information please contact:
Lisa Gautier 415 235 2403 (cell)
lisa@matteroftrust.org
Feel free to take photos from our site or email
us for more.
###
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DECEMBER 19, 2008
Contact:
Lisa
Gautier
415 235 2403
lisa@MatterOfTrust.org
San
Francisco Bay Area Is Showing How Mushrooms And Hair Can Help Oil Spills
Like Cosco Busan
SAN FRANCISCO (December 20, 2007) – A press conference will be held
at 12 PM at the Presidio of San Francisco on Friday, December 21, 2007.
It will highlight a unique project using human hair and mushrooms to remediate
bunker fuel such as was leaked in the Cusco Busan oil spill in the San Francisco
Bay. The press conference will take place at the scenic Presidio compost
yard, located off of Lincoln Boulevard just north of Kobbe Avenue.
First, mats made from human hair, invented by hair stylist Phil McCrory
of Smartgrow.net after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, were used by
surfers and concerned citizens to clean up San Francisco's Ocean Beach in
November of 2007. Next, Paul Stamets of Fungi.com donated Oyster mushroom
spawn which shoots out millions of roots, clinging to the mesh of oil-soaked
hairmats, breaking down the hydrocarbon bonds in oil, and turning the toxic
waste into landscape-grade fertilizer. The natural process is called “mycoremediation."
All of the actual Cosco Busan oil-soaked hairmats cannot currently be used
in this experiment because they are safely contained by the Unified Command
Emergency Response Cleanup Contractors. Those hairmats are included in the
official 19,000 gallons of recuperated toxic waste now considered to be
evidence in the oil spill litigation. Meanwhile, this study has been donated
a sample of similar bunker fuel from a helpful East Bay container shipping
company, to demonstrate a green alternative for the eventual remediation
of the Cosco Busan waste oil. The traditional, approved disposal practice
is incineration, but this is pricey and releases toxins into the air. However
with this win-win study, not only can we breath deeply, but industry discovers
the revenue stream of generating fertilizer product while reducing their
expense of disposal.
The Oily-Hairmat-Eating Mushroom Project at the Presidio is headed up by
Lisa Craig Gautier, founder of Matteroftrust.org, an ecological public charity.
“The amazing support and media excitement for this project has been
inspiring". The applications of this organic method has world wide
potential for environmental restoration. “People are attracted to
it because everyone understands oily hair and can see weekly photos on Matteroftrust.org
showing how fast the mushroom's work on bunker fuel and on used motor oil,
a worse polluter of our oceans." Says Gautier. A wide range of agencies
and organizations have come together to collaborate and advise on this project,
including the Presidio Trust, the California Department of Toxic Substances
and Control, the San Francisco Departments of the Environment, Emergency
Services and Public Health, SF Mycological Society, St. Vincent de Paul
Society and The East Bay Depot For Creative Reuse.
Matter of Trust, Inc. is an ecological public charity that links ideas,
sparks action and materializes sustainable systems. It's focus is manmade
surplus, natural surplus and eco-education.
For more information please contact:
Lisa Gautier 415 235 2403 (cell)
lisa@matteroftrust.org
Feel free to take photos from our site or email
us for more.
###
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday November 12, 2007
Contact:
Lisa Gautier
415 235 2403
lisa@MatterOfTrust.org
CONCERNED CITIZENS POUR OUT ON TO SAN FRANCISCO BEACHES
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.... Over 500 concerned citizens came out to Ocean Beach
in San Francisco on Sunday 11/11/07 to encourage government agencies to
hire more professional toxic clean up crews. It's important that people
don't go out and touch this bunker oil with their bare hands. "Where
there are no volunteers or official crews, we've seen picnicking families
with kids making sand castles and using the oil as decoration. Some people
are picking up dog poo and oil in the same bags and putting toxic waste
in public garbage cans," said Lisa Gautier of MatterOfTrust.org. So
surfers and environmentalists have unofficially banded together to find
some method to the madness where Government Agencies may be a little overwhelmed.
"We believe that if people are going out to clean up, then they really
should be protected. We have these extremely efficient hair mats (absorbent
hair mats made out of human hair see http://www.matteroftrust.org/programs/natural.html#mats
and we're donating them to the cause," she adds. Individuals and companies
are donating their time and hundreds of paint suits, gloves, mats , garbage
bags, face masks, and tarps (to consolidate the toxic waste), food, drinks
to this grassroots campaign, calling itself 'Kill the Spill'. So far, in
2 specific spots, thousands of pounds of oil and hair have been collected
in designated garbage bags. They've also put up warning signs all along
Ocean Beach. We have been talking with the official agencies and contracted
companies. Everyone is trying to help everyone else."
The great news is that this waste doesn't have to stay toxic. Since it's
just hair and oil, there is an oyster mushroom that will cling to the hair
and eat the hair and oil while detoxifying it in less than 4 months. A donation
of $10,000 worth of oyster mushroom spawn from Paul Stamets of Fungi.com
has been made to Matter of Trust and thanks to helpful information from
contractors like Universal
Environmental we've managed to contact The
O'Briens Group , contracted for shore activity, toxic waste
collection and disposal, and we hope to donate the spawn and set up to them.
Other Bay Area cities and counties are asking for hair mats and even for
the loose hair Matter of Trust has in storage (mailed in by thousands of
philanthropic hair salons throughout the US). While this is being coordinated,
Matter of Trust is also suggesting that agencies contact SmartGrow.net.
They can fill industrial quantity size orders and have them to contracted
agencies within 4 days. Smartgrow's hair mats are made in China (typically
used by professional rose growers as fertilzer, but exactly the same as
the oil spill mats). San Francisco is the "City that can" get
through this with people power and a little help from Mother Nature.
For more information please contact:
Lisa Gautier 415 235 2403 (cell)
lisa@matteroftrust.org
Feel free to take photos from our site or email
us for more.
###