Salons set to ‘recycle the unrecyclable’ thanks to Authentic Beauty Concept and Green Salon Collective

Henkel’s vegan professional hair care and style brand, Authentic Beauty Concept, has partnered with Green Salon Collective, the UK & Ireland’s authority on making hair salons sustainable.

With a pledge to ‘recycle the unrecyclable’, GSC works with salons in the UK and Ireland to recycle hair, colour, bleach, foils, colour tubes, PPE, plastic and paper, ensuring that salons can contribute to creating a circular economy. Any profits GSC generates go to charities including Haircuts 4 Homeless and Food Cycle. The organisation also plants a tree for every recycling returns box purchased by salons.

Since its launch in July 2020, GSC has partnered with more than 250 salons and achieved major milestones, including:

• Diverted more than 400kgs of hair towards cleaning waterways and gardening projects
• Recycled more than 2.3 tonnes of used foil and colour tubes
• Recycled and recovered more than 230L of leftover colour and bleach, plus more than 200kgs of PPE and Plastic

Fry Taylor of GSC said: “We all love the hairdressing industry but it has an ugly side too. We freely pour toxic hair colour down the sink, throw out used foils and colour tubes in the regular bin given they mostly can't be recycled, we use more plastic and paper than the other shops on the high street and we even throw valuable hair cuttings into the bin. We’re determined to change this and we’re thrilled that Authentic Beauty Concept has formed a partnership with us. The team have shown an impressive commitment to their personal journeys on sustainability, they regularly attending GSC training sessions and with this knowledge they are helping spread the word of GSC to the industry.” 

Emily McTavish, Brand Manager for Authentic Beauty Concept, says: “Sustainability is at the heart of Authentic Beauty Concept from our ethically-sourced, vegan ingredients to refill bars in salons. Helping salons recycle ‘difficult’ waste is a natural next step.”

The Authentic Beauty Concept team will work closely with GSC to help hairdressers across the UK and Ireland incorporate their easy-to-use recycling bins and pick-up service, as well as take up education and accreditation opportunities. Salons are encouraged to raise awareness of the need for waste reduction in the hair industry by charging a £1/€1 fee per client to pay for recycling. As members of GSC, Authentic Beauty Concept salons can benefit from:

• Straightforward recycling: GSC provides salons with a service to recycle the traditionally impossible to recycle items: hair, foil, chemicals and colour tubes, as well as a full plastic, PPE and paper service.
• Ongoing education: GSC educates salons on waste, energy, water and food, as well as staff policies and social responsibilities.
• Accreditation: through independent consultants and sustainability experts, The Liminality
• Growth: an enhanced sustainable offering provides a huge point of difference for salons, and GSC’s salon locator provides listings for clients searching for local salons providing ethical and sustainable services.

The partnership builds on Authentic Beauty Concept’s strong sustainability foundation:

• High-performance, professional products that are entirely vegan and approved by the Vegan Society
• Premium packaging, which is recyclable, reusable and produced with 80% Post-Consumer Recycled Plastic.
• Refill bars to encourage a circular economy and reduce single-use plastics.
• Sustainable initiatives including supporting Hairdressers without Borders, providing education, empowerment and employment for those in developing countries; and the Sustainable Guar Initiative ‏(SGI), which promotes sustainable agricultural practices for farmers and supports education in best practices, nutrition, productivity and conservation.
• Sustainable salon practices, including sustainable salon tools, materials and education

For more information about GSC, visit: greensaloncollective.com/why