Green Circle Salons - Make Beauty Beautiful

Recycling has become a part of our everyday lives. We separate out soda cans and water bottles and break down boxes and sort paper and magazines. Many of us have bins at home, and even in our spas and salons for these items. But what about empty color tubes or used foils? Files, cotton pads, gloves? Manikin heads? Leftover lightener? Hair clippings? They go into the trash, right? 

Would you be surprised to know ALL of those items can be recycled? 

Green Circle Salons provides the world’s first (and North America’s only) sustainable salon solution to recover and repurpose beauty waste - so you can keep the planet beautiful while making your clients beautiful. Green Circle Salon's simple program allows you to recycle up to 95% of the resources that were once considered waste: materials such as hair, leftover hair color, foils, color tubes, aerosol cans, paper and plastics. Amazing, right?

You are probably thinking, "recycling in my salon will be too difficult." Not when you partner with Green Circle Salons! Over 4,000 salons across the U.S. and Canada are participating, with over 16,000 stylists committed to sustainability. That's a lot of Waste Warriors, and the community is growing quickly as beauty professionals realize how much trash is generated each day at work and find out how easy it is to be green. 
 

Think outside the box and put it in a bin

In business since 2009, Green Circle Salons is committed to reducing the environmental footprint of the beauty industry, while reaching new green-minded consumers. This isn't a new program you need to be wary of - Green Circle has a proven track record of partnering with salons and diverting beauty industry waste from landfills and waterways. Their system is as simple as the recycling programs you are familiar with - using labeled bins to sort. 

So instead of tossing that old tint brush or broken tint bowl in the trash - put it in a Green Circle bin. The giant mound of foils you removed from your client's hair? Put it in a bin - without rinsing color or lightener off! The hair that is swept up? Just dump it in a bin instead of a garbage bag. Green Circle Salons then recycles or repurposes these items. 
 

Where does all of this waste go?

Hair is collected and placed in burlap bags where it can remain stable for long periods of time in a climate-controlled warehouse environment. When it is being put to use, the hair can be sterilized, dried and shredded while remaining in the burlap bag. It is then used for a variety of repurposing initiatives, such as oil boom manufacturing.

Salon metals are taken to local recycling facilities where they are sorted and separated before being combined with other types of metal and smelted. In the process, chemical waste contaminants are lifted off of the metal and kept from entering the atmosphere. This metal can then be used in a variety of manufacturing processes.

Excess hair color is stored in secure barrels before being collected by a licensed chemical waste disposal company. In most cases, the liquid waste is then put through a closed-loop incineration process where it is turned into energy, which is then injected into the local power grid. The water content, which is removed in the chemical separation process is then decontaminated and reused as grey water.

Spa Waste, like chemical waste, is put through local gasification or incineration systems and used to create a W2E fuel source out of these materials.

Manikin heads are collected and stored by Green Circle Salons, to be repurposed for a variety of public works and art projects. Heads with significant amounts of hair still intact can be reused in the training of cutting and styling services.

Salon tools are taken to a local recycling facility where they are sorted and stripped for raw materials & components alongside other E-waste such as cell phones, computers, and household appliances.

Batteries are taken to a local recycling facility where they can be drained of their minerals. The toxins that would otherwise be polluting landfill sites can be used in future battery making, while the other components of the battery can be used in a variety of manufacturing and agricultural processes.
 

Can items like hair really be of use? 

But isn't recycling expensive? 

All it takes is a minute

Go to their website greencirclesalons.com and fill out a tiny form for more information. Green Circle Salons will contact you and go over their program. You will get bins shipped to you, labels, and even in-salon promotion materials. Becoming Certified Sustainable is affordable, achievable, and most importantly, impactful.

So green your salon or spa today and make beauty beautiful - for your clients and for our planet.