One of the things I love reading about is companies that are making a difference. And the best thing we can do is to support these companies. Sustainable hairdressers or eco salons are a great example. Hairdressers create a significant amount of waste. Think about all those bottles from shampoo and conditioners, tubes from hair dyes, and all the foil and plastic wrap.
Did you know there are a bunch of salons making the world more sustainable? They recycle all of their waste and do their best to buy sustainable products.
Read on to learn more and check out the links to find a Sustainable Salon near you.
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Why Should We Be Concerned About Waste From Hair Salons?
We are often focused on our own waste at home and forget to consider the hidden waste in our regular day-to-day activities. Hair salons produce significant waste, including used foil, plastic containers, hair clippings, and discarded products. If not managed properly, this waste can contribute to overflowing landfills and increase the burden on waste management systems. It can also lead to pollution and contribute to the plastic waste problem.
The hair industry has many environmental impacts throughout the various processes, from the production of products to their disposal. The production of hair care products, such as shampoos, conditioners, dyes, and styling products, often involves the use of chemicals that can be harmful to the environment. These chemicals are often disposed of in landfills and can find their way into water systems and the surrounding soil if not contained carefully.
Hair care products rely on a lot of packaging, including plastic and metal containers containers and packaging from deliveries and storage. If not disposed of correctly, these materials can contribute to plastic waste in landfills or polluting oceans and other ecosystems. There are also a lot of single-use plastic items used such as masks, gloves, and plastic wrap.
What if all of these materials could be disposed of responsibly and in many cases even made into new products?
What is a Sustainable Salon?
A sustainable hair salon is an establishment that has committed to environmental responsibility in its operations. They do this by adopting a number of different practices in their business either by joining an organization that can help them learn how or, in some cases, by simply taking the initiative themselves.
Here are some things that differentiate a sustainable hair salon:
- Environmentally-Friendly Products: Use hair care products that are made from natural, organic, or eco-friendly ingredients.
- Water and Energy Conservation: Implement measures to reduce water and energy consumption.
- Waste Reduction and Recycling: Actively work to reduce waste generation by promoting the use of reusable or recyclable materials. By properly separating materials like foil, plastic, and paper, they can divert them from landfills and ensure they get recycled.
- Reducing Single-Use Items: Avoid single-use items whenever possible, such as disposable towels and plastic wrap, opting for more sustainable alternatives like reusable towels.
- Chemical Management and Disposal: Follow proper procedures for handling, storing, and disposing of chemicals to prevent environmental contamination and safely dispose of them.
- Community Engagement: A sustainable salon may participate in local community initiatives, support charitable causes, or engage in environmentally-focused campaigns to promote awareness and contribute positively to the community.
- Educating Clients and Staff: Educate their staff about environmentally-friendly hair care practices and the benefits of using eco-friendly products.
- Ethical and Responsible Sourcing: Sustainable salons may source hair care products and other salon supplies from companies that prioritize ethical sourcing and environmentally-friendly production methods.
- Green Certifications: Some sustainable salons may seek certifications or affiliations with recognized green organizations or programs, demonstrating their commitment to sustainable practices.
- Innovation and Continuous Improvement: Sustainable salons stay up-to-date with advancements in sustainable practices and continually seek new ways to reduce their environmental impact.
Where Does The Eco Salon Waste Go?
Depending on where you are located, there are various options for the different types of salon waste collected. Here are a few examples:
Hair Clippings
Even your hair clippings are collected and recycled. There are a few options for recycling hair clippings, including the following:
- The hair may be composted with other organic materials.
- Hair can also be used to make hair booms and mats that will help clean up oil spills when needed. For example, in 2021, hair from the Green Salon Collective was used to clean up an oil spill from farmland in Northern Ireland. Red Diesel oil leaked into the sea, and the hair booms were used to help collect trapped oil from the shoreline rocks.
- If it’s a full ponytail, it can be used to make wigs for cancer patients or other humanitarian efforts.
- Turned into bio-composite plastic to make new products.
- Used in research and development for new technologies like stormwater filtration.
- Research and development are ongoing in the UK to use a hair-wool fiber alternative to plastic or cotton-based yarns, ropes, and twines.
It’s amazing how many uses there are for hair waste!
Plastic packaging
Plastic packaging is sent to specialist plastics recyclers and is made into new products like outdoor furniture, landscape supplies, and packaging. In Australia, Sustainable Salons have also teamed up with a few different companies including:
- Dresden Vision makes sunglasses out of old shampoo bottles.
- Defy Design make many different products, including plant pots and shower combs.
Aluminum foil and other recyclables
The aluminum foils, color tubes, razor blades, and other metals are separated and sent to facilities to be melted down and recycled into new products.
Cardboard and paper
Paper and cardboard waste is collected, sorted, and recycled into new paper products.
E-waste
I’ll bet you never considered e-waste being part of a hair salon. E-waste is often thought to be computer-based items, but it also includes hairdryers, electric razors, and other electric products. But e-waste includes anything with a plug in cord or battery so that means hair dryers, straighteners, and curlers.
Chemicals
Nothing goes to waste. Eco Salons also recycle excess chemicals and save them from ending up in a landfill. These toxic materials are collected and sent to specialist chemical recycling companies or to be incinerated and converted into energy.
PPE Equipment (gloves, masks, etc.)
PPE times can be a little trickier, and it is usually sent for incineration, where it is converted into energy. If there are soft plastics, these may be separated and recycled into outdoor furniture.
Salon Towels
In the UK, they have been devising a way to create a closed-loop recycling program for used salon towels. They collect compostable towels to ensure they are processed correctly and don’t end up in a landfill where they are unlikely to break down.
Examples of Sustainable Salon Organisations and
How to Find Your Nearest Salon
Here’s a shortlist or keep reading if you want to learn more:
- North America – Green Salon Directory
- United Kingdome and Ireland – Green Salon Collective’s locator
- Australia and New Zealand – Sustainable Salons
North America Eco Salons
Over in North America, we have Green Circle Salons working hard to make sure they keep people and the planet beautiful. Green Circle Salons, a B Corp company, was started in 2009 and is focused on creating sustainable salons in North America. They partner with over 40 companies across North America such as recycling facilities, chemical waste processors, clean energy producers, and bio-composite plastic producers.
They support salons in becoming green while building revenue and clients and saving them money. Like Sustainable Salons, they repurpose and recover up to 95% of the waste such as hair, leftover hair color, foils, color tubes, aerosol cans, paper, and plastics. To date, their efforts have diverted nearly 3 million pounds of waste from landfills. Green Circle Salons also works with salons to cut down on their energy and water use.
Find your nearest eco salon at Green Salon Directory. Or why not encourage your favorite salon to join.
UK and Ireland Eco Salons
In the UK, you will find several organizations putting eco salons or sustainable salons on the map.
One particular group that is worth checking out is the Green Salon Collective. It was founded by a mix of environmental experts, hairdressers, and eco campaigners with a goal to make the hairdressing industry more sustainable.
They recycle, compost, and recover: hair, used foils, empty color tubes, chemicals, PPE, plastic, paper, and even salon towels. Not only do they support salons that join up with a starter kit and regular waste collections, but they also focus on education. Plus, 100% of their profits from recycling the materials go to charity.
Use the Green Salon Collective’s locator to find your nearest sustainable salon.
Australia and New Zealand Sustainable Salons
Sustainable Salons was started in 2015. At the time, the founders estimated that Australian salons were sending 1 million kilograms of foil to landfills every year! That’s bad news, given aluminum foil can be recycled easily over and over again. So they decided to do something about it.
The salons are also encouraged through a rewards program to use eco-cleaning products, recycled toilet paper, biodegradable coffee pods, recycled foil, biodegradable towels, biodegradable gloves, and more! We also like Refoil who is helping to recycle aluminum foil from salons.
Since their launch, hundreds of salons have joined the program, and more are joining daily. In fact, they now include barbershops, beauty salons, dermal clinics, and the best one, pet-grooming salons. This is another great way you and your dog can be sustainable together!
Find your nearest eco salon, barber, or pet grooming salon at Sustainable Salons.
The Wrap
Industries like the hair industry must continue exploring sustainable alternatives and adopt eco-friendly practices to minimize their environmental impact.
If you are a hair salon, barber, or pet grooming salon and want to learn more about your impact, check out this article, ” Is Your Salon Helping, or Harming, the Environment? ” by The Source. Then look at the organizations above to help you start your journey to be a sustainable or eco-salon.
For consumers, if you can sway to a more sustainable salon found through one of the country-specific locators provided above, that’s great news. There are lots of great salons making an effort to become eco-friendly and sustainable.
If you can’t locate one near you, then ask your favorite salon what they are doing to be more sustainable. You might be surprised to find out they are already making an effort, and if not, encourage them to join one of the organizations above.
And don’t forget to spread the word! The more people that know about eco salons, the bigger difference we can make.
