Snipping Out Waste for Good This Zero Waste Week
This September 1st – 5th marks Zero Waste Week! We want to make it easy for hairdressing professionals to reduce waste in their businesses – whether a busy salon or home studio!
Top Five Tips for Cutting Out Salon Waste
- Go Paperless: Try sending digital email receipts, and use an online subscription for magazines! Where unavoidable, repurpose or recycle supplier Many salons creatively reuse colour tube boxes to give clients hair to use in their houseplants at home, or recycle weekly with a paper and plastic service.
- Recycle Hair, Foil and Colour Tubes: These items generate significant waste yet can rarely be recycled Instead, they’re sent to landfill or incineration. The good news is, they can be recycled with Green Salon Collective across the UK and Ireland! In the past 5 years, over 200,00kilograms of salon specific waste has been saved from landfill by GSC!
- Prevent Wasted Colour: An alarming 25% of salon chemicals end up in landfill or waterways, amounting to over 600 tonnes of waste annually across the industry! Never mind the financial impact on your Salons can audit their colour usage, implement colour-saving software like SalonScale or Vish, and responsibly dispose of colour-contaminated waste via waste-to-energy services to make sure nothing ends up in landfill.
- Offer Product Refills: Encouraging clients to refill their products can reduce the overall amount of single use plastic in the loop, create client and brand loyalty and reduce the price for you and your clients.
- Choose Reusables: Where possible, swap disposable cups, bottles and gloves for reusable alternatives and do a waste audit to see what your top culprits are, and if they can be reduced or reused!
Not sure what you’re wasting, or what needs to change?
- Waste Audit: Understand your waste streams and identify areas of highest environmental and financial impact.
- Recycle Everything Feasible: Work with Green Salon Collective to ensure hair, foils, colour tubes, PPE, plastics, paper, and even chemical waste, are responsibly disposed
- Educate and Inspire: Engage staff and clients through awareness, training, and visible recycling systems to embed sustainability into daily routines.
- Monitor and Evolve: Track progress and highlight successes, reinforcing commitment and inspiring others.
Why It Matters Now
With new recycling legislation coming into force in England from 31 March 2025, salons with ten or more full-time equivalent staff are legally required to separate and recycle specified waste streams. By March 2027, all businesses will need to be compliant. Get in touch with Green Salon Collective for advice, and start your sustainability journey!
