Uptown Hair Salon Goes Green, Diverts 95 Percent Of Waste
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Wave Salon in Uptown has become Minnesota's first green salon. They are able to divert 95 percent of their waste by recycling hair, chemicals, foil and plastic.
In the back of Wave Salon there is a bag of extra hair dye ready for recycling.
"It's all chemicals that in the past we would have dumped it down the drain," Will O'Hara, co-owner of Wave Salon, said. "And it would've gone into our water systems."
Wave Salon just partnered with Green Circle Salons, which will send all the extra hair dye to be turned into clean energy.
"It's a comprehensive recycling project designed specifically for the beauty industry," Amy Goei, Regional Director with Green Circle Salon, said. "The beauty industry itself does create a lot of waste."
Green Circle Salons started in Canada and just opened in the U.S. in April 2014.
"We take the paper, plastic, hair, metal and chemicals," Goei said.
How do they recycle hair?
Goei said all the hair is sent to a women's correctional facility where it is turned into "hair booms," which can be used to help clean up oil spills.
"Those can be used in case of a disaster to soak up oil along shore lines," Goei said.
Foil seems like an easy material to recycle, but once it is covered in hair dye chemicals, it must be thrown away. But Green Circle Salons is able to separate the materials to allow them to be recycled.
"It's so much better now that it can now be repurposed," O'Hara. said
About 600 salons in North America have gone green, but Wave Salon is the first in Minnesota.
"They're leading a movement here in the US for green change in the beauty industry," Goei said.
It doesn't cost Wave Salon anything, but customers do pay a $2 "Sustainable Stewardship Fee."
"It's comforting to know that someone else is thinking about this so I can still get my hair colored and it's not ruining the environment," Eva Groom, a customer, said.
"Everyone's happy," said O'Hara. "Especially in Uptown Minneapolis, we're a very environmentally conscious group here."
Green Circle Salons says they hope this is the first of many green salons in Minnesota and can cater to any salon, no matter the size.
"Hair dressers are such touchy-feely, caring people," O'Hara said. "So there are going to be a lot of salon owners that are going to want to do this."
For more information, visit Green Circles Salon and Wave Salon online.