Hair Recycle

Hair Recycle is an award-winning circular economy startup based in Belgium that offers innovative absorbent solutions as a service for hydrocarbon, polymer, glycol and oil pollution. Our mission is to enable Maintenance Directors to have eco-responsible solutions and improve their environmental footprint in an accessible and effortless way. The company was founded in 2021 by Patrick and Quentin Janssen, father and son, two entrepreneurs driven by impact and passionate about waste recovery. It all started when they came across the shocking statistic that 1000 tonnes of hair ends up as waste in Belgium every year. Yet the hair is a great material, it is among other things lipophilic, it absorbs oils and fats. The problem? Traditional absorbent products are designed to end up as waste after being used once. Designed from petro-chemical derivatives and produced thousands of kilometers from their place of exploitation, they end up in the incinerator, which is really not ecological. Patrick and Quentin decided it was time to fix this problem. This is why dung dung was born: an absorbent that incorporates circular economy design from the start. Hair Recycle products never end up as waste and always return to the material cycle in the manufacture of cement, resulting in a 90% lower carbon footprint than conventional absorbents. Hair Recycle's vision is to develop a local, sustainable and circular eco-system with the valorisation of cut hair in hairdressing salons. More information on www.hairrecycle.eu