Salon Owners, Why It’s Important to be a Green Salon in the Age of COVID-19 and How to Make Your Salon Green
Throughout my many years as a hairstylist and salon owner, I have always been concerned about the amount of waste produced in a salon. As a salon owner, I did my best to recycle and trained my staff to recycle using the waste management system provided through our city. I never felt like it was enough and was concerned that what was collected by the waste management company was not all getting processed properly.
I have recently learned the shocking hard cold facts. The salon industry in North America alone creates over 421,000 pounds of waste per day. Out of the waste that is collected for recycling 55% is buried in landfills, 12.5% is incinerated, and only 33% is recycled.
In this new challenging age of COVID-19, we have seen some positive environmental changes due to a large percentage of the population working from home and sheltering in place. In fact, car traffic in the US is down by 50% since mid-March and has reduced nitrogen dioxide and carbon pollutants in the atmosphere. Now with businesses reopening under CDC guidelines, there are new environmental concerns.
So, what can a salon, spa, or barbershop owner do to help the planet in these challenging times as they reopen and rebuild?
Introducing Green Circle Salons, a company that partners with salons in North America to divert 95% of all salon waste. GCS certifies their member salons on best practices and collects, recycles, and repurposes the salon waste. These salons are also shown how they can save and even make money through this program. As of 2020, GCS has diverted over 6.5M pounds of waste from landfills and waterways.
As beauty establishments reopen and operate under the new CDC guidelines requiring personal protective equipment (PPE) this creates new waste that is not recyclable. Masks, gloves, capes, towels, and face shields are all part of the PPE single-use materials being used daily with the potential to contaminate the space and end up in landfills. Green Circle Salons have developed the PPE Recovery Initiative a solution that keeps this waste separated and safely disposed of. With the PPE Recovery Initiative, GCS can provide a safe way to return to work without a single new item entering the landfills.
We all want to do our best for the environment, but we don’t always know-how. Now thanks to Green Circle Salons it is easy to make a positive difference for the planet in the beauty industry.
Keep the planet beautiful! Learn more at www.greencirclesalons.com.
About the author
Kerrie Brandau, a 30 years cosmetologist, salon owner, and the founder/CEO of Salonch. Kerrie is passionate about helping beauty establishment owners and beauty industry professionals find their ideal work tribe with Salonch.