Why we love Sustainable Salons Australia
At ENOUGH, we’re not only about creating a positive experience for our clients but also our community and the world we live in. We believe that beauty starts with health and wellbeing, and that comes from living a conscious life with a respect for sustainable, ethical and organic consumption. With that in mind, we knew from the outset that ENOUGH couldn’t be a salon that produced the amount of harmful waste found in regular salons. This is why we’ve partnered with Sustainable Salons Australia (SSA), the first comprehensive resource recovery service in Australia designed for the salon environment that rewards salons and gives back to the community.
Founded by Paul Frasca and Ewelina Soroko in 2015, SSA specialises in collecting up to 95% of the salon waste bin and redirecting all material for reuse, recycling and repurposing solutions. Not only that, the program donates 100% of the recycling proceeds to OzHarvest, a charitable organisation dedicated to feeding the most vulnerable in our community. Pretty great, huh?
Operating for about two years, SSA has more than five years of research to back their operations, and has signed up many salons as industry eco warriors. We’re proud to be one of them. Today there are hundreds of salon members across the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia doing their part to change industry perceptions and aiming for zero waste salons.
How does it all work?
SSA comes directly to us at ENOUGH and collects more than 95% of the our waste fortnightly. They provide all in-salon bins and outside collection bins to suit our needs; collecting paper, plastics, metals, hair (and ponytails), chemicals, razors, tools and more!
Chemical waste is turned back into clean water used for manufacturing and building, rather than going down the drain and contaminating our oceans.
Aluminium is infinitely recyclable, so they divert all of a salon’s foil, aluminium colour tubes, canisters and product packaging from landfill back into recycled resources.
Even plastic bags have a story! They’re all sent to an award-winning company called Plastic Forests who then turn them into outdoor furniture and heavy-duty plastic sheeting that goes underground to protect our NBN.
All hair swept up from the salon floor gets collected for The Hair Boom Project, an initiative designed to help with cleaning up oil spills and other natural disasters. To date, SSA has collected more than 14,000kg of hair that is stockpiled in its depot in Botany, Sydney that is ready to be deployed whenever it’s needed.
And last but certainly not least, SSA is also now the largest collector and donor of ponytails in Australia. They send them to various charitable organisations such as Variety The Children’s Charity to be made into wigs for alopecia and cancer patients.
The best part is that 100% of the profits from all of this recycled waste goes back into the community via OzHarvest to help feed hungry Australians. For every dollar donated by Sustainable Salons, 2 meals are provided to the most vulnerable in our community (we average 2000 meals per month).
Pretty amazing, hey? We’re so proud to be a part of this community and to be doing our bit to protect this beautiful planet.
If you’re interested in learning further about SSA, come in store and chat to us today. We absolutely love spreading the word so don’t be shy.
