Victoria Hair Salons Ready with Hair for Oil Spills
Oct 26, 2012
(News Release) VICTORIA — In the case of an oil spill on the West Coast, local hair salons are making sure your hair clippings are ready to be put to use. Many of these salons donated hair to clean up the Gulf Coast BP oil spill in 2010, and recognize that the hair grown right here on the West Coast can be put to use close to home in the event of a spill. They've chosen to have their hair picked up by Green Circle Salons, a Canadian company who stores the hair in Burnaby and is ready to hand over the stockpile to oil companies to absorb oil from our waterways.
Hair has been discovered to be the most effective material available for use in hair booms and hair mats used on shorelines for oil cleanup. Human hair behaves much like the fur and feathers we see on oil-covered wildlife after a spill. It absorbs and clings to oil. "Hair is a locally grown fibre that offers a natural and very effective alternative to the manufactured synthetic booms used by oil companies today," says Shane Price, president of Green Circle Salons.
"We encourage each and every customer to ask their salon to become a Green Circle Salon member. Not only do we re-purpose the hair for oil-spill cleanup, but we also pick up their foils, color tubes, and excess chemicals that would have otherwise gone into landfill or down the drain. These chemicals simply don't belong in our waterways," says Jennifer Hennessey, Green Circle Salons BC sales consultant. "Our member salons are leading the way of the industry and really are the greenest salons in the world."
Green Circle has been collecting hair and recyclables weekly from Ontario salons for over three years and just this year launched its operations in Metro Vancouver, Victoria, and Nanaimo. They've contributed hair to aid in cleanup in the BP Gulf spill, diverted hundreds of thousands of pounds of salon waste from landfill since inception and have a goal to make the Canadian salon industry sustainable by 2020. "We can do this, one salon at a time." says Hennessey. "Until now, our industry's waste has gone to landfill because it's not like typical commercial or office waste. It's the low value, hard to recycle materials we manage. We can now divert 85 to 95 percent of salon waste in a sustainable, environmentally responsible way. We are diverting literally football fields full of waste each month."
Participating Green Circle salon in Victoria locations include:
Aveda Institute
Carreiro the Studio
DesignHouse Salon
Gemi/ Phoenica Styles
Hive Hair
Kazen Hair & Beauty (Aveda)
Lab Salon
Luv Salon
On the Fringe
Parlour Salon
The Gallery
Wiink2 for Hair & Body (Aveda)
Nanaimo locations:
Chameleon Hair & Esthetics
Kiyo Salon
Salon Luminence
Serenity Salon
Vanilla Alley Hair Salon
or see www.GreenCircleSalons.ca for a full listing and more details on how these salons are making a difference.