Beaconsfield hair salon goes green to help protect environment

BEACONSFIELD – The hair industry is big business.

Every single day it produces over 400,000 pounds of waste – everything from shampoo bottles, hair spray cans, foil wraps and even hair are thrown out.

But now, there’s another solution; it’s called Green Circle.

“We help collect all of the hair, aluminium foils, colour tubes, cans, even the leftover chemical waste that’s left in a bowl after applying a technical service in salons,” said Scott Moon, Green Circle Salons Regional Education Manager.

“We help collect all of that to make sure none of it has to go into landfills or is being rinsed down the sink anymore.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We help collect all of that to make sure none of it has to go into landfills or is being rinsed down the sink anymore."

Revolution Hair Studio in Beaconsfield is now taking part in the movement.

“All the leftover dye after we colour hair, we don’t put it down the drain anymore,” said owner Tamara Rifai.

“We put it in plastic bags, and once it’s full we call up Green Circle, and they pick it up and they recycle it and use it to make energy.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We put it in plastic bags, and once it's full we call up Green Circle, and they pick it up and they recycle it and use it to make energy."

Most materials are collected, recycled and repurposed.

What about all that hair?

Green Circle uses it to make hair booms – nylon tubes filled with hair used to mop up oil spills.

“We don’t have that much garbage anymore,” said Rifai.

“We throw out a bag of garbage every few days, whereas before we used to throw out tons of garbage. You can’t imagine how much hair fills up, and tin foil, it’s not heavy but it’s massive.”

Rifai tacks on a $1-$2 eco-fee on every bill, but customers said they don’t mind the extra fee.

“I’ve been coming here for 15 years and I thought a small few dollar increase to be able to save the environment is really a small price to pay,” one customer told Global News.

About 100 hair salons across the province are going green, including over 50 in Montreal.

“If you think of how many people we are, getting their hair cut and coloured and all the waste that we produce altogether,” said Rifai.

“If we’re all part of this Green Circle, we can make a huge difference.”