Dunsborough Hair salon joins forces with sustainability organisation

Each year in Australia and New Zealand the salon industry sends more than 1500 tonnes of recyclable aluminium back to landfill, as well as wasted resources of plastics, colour tubes, hair clippings and more. Dunsborough hair salon I Do Hair Collective is aiming to put a stop to the waste in its attempt to become more sustainable. The salon now recycles up to 95 per cent of resources used within the salon by joining forces with non-profit organisation Sustainable Salons. The salon’s excess chemicals such as peroxide and hair colour now go to a chemical recycler to be neutralised into recycled water used in construction, roadworks and community gardens. Plastics are also repurposed and recycled into closed-loop products such as outdoor furniture, coasters, sunglasses, combs and more. “I’ve had the salon for eight years, but before there was never an option for recycling or any kind of sustainability, as most of our waste used to be put into a big skip bin,” owner Fiona Lee Locock said. “It was extremely evident to me how much waste that we were producing on a daily basis, like it was astounding how much waste we had. “We recently just had our salon refurbished so it was a no-brainer to get involved and do our part.” Mrs Locock said that along with the recycling the salon has recently installed water-reducing showerheads. “The eco-heads are showerheads for our basins, which also reduce the water and energy usage by 65 per cent,” she said. “Lots of the hair also get collected and get sent off and are made into what’s called a hair boom, which is like a sandbag, but made of hair to soak up oil spills in the ocean.” All proceeds earned from the sales of metal and paper recycling are donated to OzHarvest and KiwiHarvest to fund meals for disadvantaged people. “It’s been a huge change to how we previously handled our waste, but we have already seen great results and we are all really happy we took this step.”