Hair salons doing their part for environment
In the run of a day, hair salons create a lot of waste from the chemicals used in dye and materials for foils — not to mention all that hair. And gone are the days when that waste can simply be tossed into the garbage.
On P.E.I., the sorting of all waste material is mandatory through the Waste Watch Program, explains Gerry Moore, chief executive officer for the Island Waste Management Corp. These rules, he said, apply to all homes, institutions and businesses.
"Proper sorting allows us to extend the lifetime of our one landfill."
It also provides an opportunity to remanufacture items that can be recycled and make a great compost product from compostable materials, he said. Hazardous materials are also disposed of properly to help protect the environment.
When it comes to hair salons, Moore said any excess hair colour product has hazardous components and must be disposed of as a hazardous product. If the container is empty with just residual product, then the container could be rinsed out and recycled if it's made from plastics one through five. If it's made from another type of plastic, then the container is simply waste and any residual product is managed through the wastewater treatment centre.
“Hazardous products should never be poured out of their original containers for disposal,” said Moore. “Products that may react with each other, or a waste agent may accidentally handle it improperly. And it could cause issues during transportation.”
As for foils that are used in the hair highlighting process, Moore said that only clean foil is accepted in P.E.I.'s recycling stream. Soiled foils cannot be recycled.
“The Waste Watch Program does not mandate that hair salon byproducts be specially recycled; however, we fully support any environmental initiative to reduce material for disposal and reuse it for another purpose,” said Moore.
SERVICES AVAILABLE
To make the entire recycling process easier, many hair salons have signed up for a national program through Green Circle Salons, which recovers and repurposes beauty waste.
According to Bryn Collier, director of marketing for Green Circle Salons, the beauty industry creates 877 pounds of waste every minute. Since 2009, Green Circle Salons has worked to recover 95 per cent — or over one million pounds — of beauty waste each year.
Michelle Burns, a stylist with the Head Shoppe in New Minas, Kings County said programs like this make recycling much easier.
“We package everything up in a clear bag, which then gets put in a big box and gets sent out like a package on a truck to be disposed at the Green Circle headquarters in Ontario,” said Burns.
Included in the bag are all the empty foil and colour tubes, as well as any extra colour that was mixed and was leftover, along with cut hair.
"We just have to keep all the waste separated and organized," said Burns.
When shipped, Collier said Green Circle Salon uses a carbon-neutral shipping provider to ensure these shipments aren't creating any unnecessary environmental impact.
Improper disposal can affect the environment. When rinsed down the drain, hair colour can find its way back into drinking water and soil, said Collier. The excess hair colour is instead taken to a chemical waste management facility where it is converted into clean energy or the water is extracted, neutralized and reintroduced back into the water system — cleaned and ready to be used.
HAIR DECOMPOSITION
Cut hair can go in the regular compost, said Moore.
It cannot, however, break down in a landfill, adds Collier.
A garbage bag of hair produces greenhouse gasses as it tries to break down, which leads to climate change. Hair needs air and moisture to decompose.
"This is why it's important we sort and recover the 63,000 pounds of hair that gets thrown away every day," said Collier.
“Some ways we have repurposed hair include manufacturing sustainable bio-composite plastics, hair booms for use in oil spill cleanup, stormwater filtration, commercial insulation, as well as humanitarian efforts."
The metals, such as foils, used in salons are often contaminated and not accepted by local recycling, so they get thrown in the trash. Over 110,000 pounds of metal are thrown away every day from salons in Canada and the United States — that's over half the weight of a commercial airplane, said Collier.
Green Circle Salons takes the metals from foils and recycles them, turning them into new products like bicycle frames and car parts.
PACKAGING
Besides green programs for recycling beauty waste, Brannigan Bowlby of 2nd Glance salon in Berwick, Kings County has noticed many companies are now creating supplies in more sustainable packaging.
"Many supplies now come in containers from recycled products, including ocean plastics. You can also now purchase recyclable foils," she said.
These options are great for smaller salons with only a few stylists and who may not be able to afford to belong to larger-scale recycling programs like the one offered by Green Circle Salons.
“Salons generate a lot of waste and use a lot of clean water for services. It's important to try and create a bit of balance with recycling and proper disposal of chemical products,” said Bowlby.
Moore says they applaud any of these recycling initiatives and encourages all businesses to seek and support these programs that help the environment.
He does offer a word of caution to businesses signing up for programs such as this, suggesting they seek information on where the product is going, how it is managed and check testimonials to ensure validity.