Cotton to the Rescue

Maxim has been using cotton as a natural solution in the feminine hygiene world, but could cotton be the solution to the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

Texas Tech Professor, Professor Ramkumar, suggests that rather than spending tons of money on building containment structures and using synthetic materials to control the oil spill, we should be using cotton. Ramkumar was inspired by the idea when working within his lab where he creates rolls of nonwoven cotton. "We are the only ones - actually, I think, to my knowledge - focused on taking cotton to oil absorption using nonwoven technology," says Ramkumar in an interview with Lubbock Online.

It is the chemistry of cotton that makes it such a gift within this situation - its waxiness, incredible strength when wet, absorption ability and biodegradability. Cotton can soak up 40 times its weight naturally, enhancing it with chemicals making it sort of super cotton will allow it to soak up to 70 times its own weight. If you ask me, that would make for one heck of a pad in the world of oil spills!

Sources say they are currently using synthetic made booms to soak up the oil; the problem is that they are not biodegradable. Using cotton can be a natural solution that might just save us money and time. Kudos to maxim for using cotton in feminine hygiene to have less of a negative environmental impact; let’s see if cotton can save the environmental disaster in the Gulf!

For more information about the possibilities of using cotton to help with the oil spill,click here .