The sustainable way with Rodney Wayne
In Australia and New Zealand alone, 3,000,000 kg of salon waste is sent to landfill each year. But we’re not here to talk about the problem, we’re here to talk about the solution.
A solution that was born back in 2015 out of a road trip across Australia. Paul Frasca and Ewelina Soroko wanted to find a sustainable solution for the amount of waste salons were contributing to the planet, and after a study of 160 salon waste bins, they were able to determine what the problem was and Sustainable Salons was born.
SSANZ is an industry-specific service, recycling up to 95% of the salon bin. Salons who sign up to the program receive a set of in-salon separation bins for their hair, metals, paper, plastics and other materials, along with a larger collection bin or bag. SSANZ then go directly to the salon door to pick up their resources and take these resources back to one of their local depots to be processed and recycled. This circular economy philosophy means they are always looking for ways to give salon resources another life.
Resources such as hair clippings, which are collected from the salon floor and transformed into hair booms for oil spill clean-ups or used in R&D projects with universities. Metals like foil and colour tubes, along with paper packaging, are sold to recyclers, with 100% of the proceeds from these sales donated to KiwiHarvest and Oz Harvest to provide meals for those in need. SSANZ are also the world’s largest donor of ponytails to the charitable wig market. This helps people experiencing medically-induced hair loss from conditions like cancer and alopecia. The SSANZ community has donated over 280,000 ponytails to charities and independent wigmakers like Freedom Wigs in Dunedin. So, it’s no surprise that Rodney Wayne is supporting the initiative to officially become a member of the Sustainable Salons family.
“Being a sustainable salon gives you the confidence and reassurance that the waste produced in the salon is being put to great use and you know where it ends up. The joining process was easy, fun and educational, and from a client’s perspective, they are generally heartened to be able to contribute to where their hair and colour waste goes, especially helping make wigs from the ponytails. The ponytails are donated to charities or independent wigmakers to be made into wigs for people suffering from a medically-induced hair-loss condition - they delight in this knowledge.”
— Julie Evans, Rodney Wayne CEO
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