Efforts on to transform waste hair into wealth

Most of us in India know that long tresses, when chopped off, are sold to the wig industry — for as much as ₹15,000. That’s not the fate of short hair, which ends up as trash in landfills or dumps.

Luckily, Nagpur is showing India a way out. On the outskirts of the city, in the Purti Group’s factory, 21 women send sorted hair off into a large processer, along with acid, water, other chemicals and carefully controlled temperature. What you get finally is an amino acid mix, a liquid plant nutrient.

Logically, that is no surprise, because hair has over 16 types of amino acids. The 8 ton per shift factory not only sources short hair from the auctions at the Tirupati temple, but also from salons in the city. They still run short, because hair is lightweight stuff.

An average man’s haircut means just 2 grams of hair. Some enterprising sheep owners have also entered the value chain. For every kilo of hair it gets, the factory produces 3.5 litres of nutrient. Annually, nearly 90 tonnes of hair is processed, turning waste into wealth.

If there is something to learn, it is this: don’t underestimate innovation. The Purti plant began with a locally fabricated machinery, then a second-hand boiler and finally new equipment only when they hit scale. But it all began with jugaad-exactly the kind of green innovation that the planet needs. The challenge now is how to ensure they procure short hair from every city.