Ever wonder how green your hair salon is?
Alarmingly, the majority of salon waste such as hair color and foils, ends up down the drain into our water supply, or in the trash headed to a landfill.
While some industries have access to paid recycling for paper and plastic, the bulk of salon waste - hair, metals, excess chemicals, and much more - has always been destined for the trash bin and sink.
Check out these scary salon facts:
Did you know hair when placed in garbage bags will mummify, continue to fill our landfill, and give off methane gas?
Some salons are now diverting all hair out of landfills and into other more sustainable projects. George the Salon, creator of the Silk Veil Bridal Blowout is a certified Green Circle Salon, and in connection with various partners, is looking at ways that hair can play an important role in a number of commercial applications. It's exciting to know that hair can be used on our oceans to help in oil spill cleanup and recovery projects!
Did you know that currently all aluminum foils and color tubes are not being recycled and are sent to landfill?
Recycling aluminum uses roughly 5% of the energy required to create virgin aluminum from bauxite. 95% of all aluminum can be recycled over and over again, including the foils and color tubes that are used in salons across. Now properly recycled, this will help to reduce the need for more landfill space, reduce our dependence on non-renewable resources, and decrease the amount of toxins going into our landfill sites.
Did you know that all excess chemicals including color, perm solutions and ammonia get rinsed down the sink into our water stream?
Unfortunately, this is the ugly truth of the industry. Another proposed solution will be to send all excess color waste to a hazardous waste facility where they will be incinerated to produce clean energy!