How to minimise metals waste in your salon

Your salon probably disposes of a great deal of metal, especially aluminium. A large proportion of this will be from the colour tubes that house your chemicals. And unless you’ve found an alternative product or technique, you probably use aluminium foil for your foil or balayage work. Your business may even be a dumping ground for empty soda cans or soup tins. Your salon brings in as well as disposes of a steady flow of metal which, as you well know, you often pay for on both ends.

Metals are highly recyclable but often end up binned instead.

Metal is highly recyclable and it is incredibly important to make sure it does actually get recycled. Read our article Why is it important to recycle metal? to understand why. In this article, you will learn about how your business can help save precious resources by minimising the metals you use in the first place as well as the benefits of recycling them in your salon.

Vish & Precision Colour. Before looking for ethical ways to dispose of metals in your salon, it may be a good idea to consider the sources of the stuff and whether there is anything your team can do to minimise its output to begin with. One key place to start looking is at your colour tubes. Getting the exact amount of colour for any one client can be a tricky matter and salons waste a surprising amount of chemicals and, ultimately, these metal tubes.

Vish and Precision Colour could help your salon manage exactly that.

Both brands have developed software for salons to use which accurately tracks colour usage. It’s a clever management system where teams can easily predict actual usage from previous visits to determine actual needs for future treatments. The result is a savings for the salon not just in terms of reducing product costs but also costs related to disposal. The point to be made here is that when salons reduce product waste, they will also be saving on packaging waste which in this case is most often aluminium.

Visit Vish website and Precision Colour website to see if either could help your salon. Also, read more about managing chemicals usage in your salon in our article, How to become a chemicals-wise salon.

Recycling. The vast majority of metals can be recycled to produce new metal of the same quality. Compare this to plastics where the quality of most types are downgraded due to recycling. That metals are most often infinitely recyclable is good news because there are so many savings to be had in terms of energy, water and natural resource use. The following video shows how aluminium cans are recycled in the UK and will give you an idea of how your foil and colour tubes would be handled.

Crush. Following the ‘Crush’ initiative launched by Refoil in Australia, salons may see the value in crushing their used foil into large balls so they are more likely to be accepted by local recycling authorities. This may be a good option for those salons unable to participate in GSC but we urge you to check with your local council or current disposal service provider first.

Green Salon Collective has even more solutions for your salon. Be sure to read our article, Metals waste: Responsible disposal solutions.

This article was written for Green Salon Collective by MeetthefiveRs

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References and further reading

MeetthefiveRs’ article, Green Salon Collective: Circular disposal solutions for salon waste

The Verge’s article, Aluminum is recycling’s new best friend, but it’s complicated

The British Metals Recycling Association’s article, Cool facts about metals recycling

The Aluminum Association’s page on the production of aluminium

Spa + Clinic’s article, Salon foil usage in sustainability spotlight

Vish website

Precision Colour website

First Mile website

Cover photo by takis politis on Unsplash