What is a Green Circle Salon?

The beauty industry is so important to helping women and men look and feel their best and move in the world with confidence. But we’re not going to lie: most salons generate too much waste. Did you know the beauty industry creates nearly 900 pounds of waste every minute? This includes packaging, product and (yes) hair. But thanks to this world-changing initiative, we’ve learned that we can repurpose or recycle 95 percent of our waste.  Green Circle Salons is an international program that makes it easy and affordable for local salons to reduce their eco-footprint. They help us recover, recycle and repurpose almost all of our salon waste. Since 2009, GCS has recycled or repurposed 2.1 million pounds of waste, and their goal is to make the North American salon industry fully sustainable by next year.

Green Circle helps salons like ours recycle and repurpose everything from metal and plastic to unused hair products to hair clippings. As a business, it has made us more mindful of how we use and dispose of waste. We now have bins for metal, plastic, paper, hair clippings and color.

Hair clippings: Green Circle turns hair clippings into hair booms to help clean up oil spills. A hair boom is a cylinder-shaped pad filled with absorbent material that’s used to soak up oil after a spill. Tests have shown that hair booms are one of the best methods for removing oil and are more effective and more environmentally friendly than conventional synthetic booms. Hair is biosorbent, which means it’s a natural substance that absorbs oil while repelling water. Our program lets us keep hair clippings out of landfills while doing something positive for the planet.

Plastic and metal: We recycle plastic containers, metal color tubes and hair foil for reuse in everything from cars to playground equipment.

Hair products and chemicals: We are committed to using the highest quality products on your hair. But every salon generates some waste that just shouldn’t go into waterways. Green Circle helps us redirect unused hair products and chemicals, keeping them out of our local waterways and the ocean. Instead of pouring them down the drain, we now collect them in a special container. We’ve found that we were able to save several pounds of product waste each week. Green Circle collects the waste and disposes of unused products safely, using special enzymes to break them down.