Every minute, the beauty industry sends 877 pounds of waste to the landfill.
The Niagara College Teaching Salon is helping to change that.
This spring, NC received Green Circle Salons certification, implementing an extensive waste recycling system and education program for students in NC’s Hairstyling program.
The Green Circle program works to recycle, recover or repurpose up to 95 per cent of salon waste like hair clippings, excess hair colour, foil, single use items, PPE waste, and more. The program transforms aluminum foil into bike parts, hair into brooms to clean oil spills, waste into clean energy, and more.
To make it happen, Program Coordinator Merinda Arcidiacono and Sustainability Manager Taryn Wilkinson put their heads together to assess the space in the Pavilion at the Welland Campus, and re-operationalize the program which had been in place at the former Maid of the Mist campus.
“As we continue to grow, as our operations get more complex with our diverse and unique learning environments, so do the approaches to sustainability,” said Wilkinson, who supported the first certification process. “It’s important that faculty and students are directly involved and actively learning about how sustainability impacts and is impacted by sustainability and leading those initiatives.”
Faculty and students alike – between 150 and 200 each year – earn their Green Circle certification through a training and education program before implementing their learning in the full-service Teaching Salon.
Hairstyling student Rylee Murphy-Scott disposes of excess hair colour which is turned into clean energy, or, separated into water and oil, with the oil turned into fuel.
Rylee Murphy-Scott from Hamilton is a final term Hairstyling student who has been fascinated by the Green Circle recycling process, particularly the transformation of aluminum sheets into car parts and bicycles, and the extraction and conversion of oil from excess hair colour into clean energy.
“It’s incredible to think that something as small as a piece of foil, colour tube or aerosol container can be transformed into such useful items,” said Murphy-Scott. “There are numerous environmental challenges evolving today, and it’s so fulfilling to know that I am entering an industry that plays a role in recycling, recovering, and repurposing.”
Program coordinator Merinda Arcidiacono says that, as more and more salons go green, the Certified Sustainable Education Credential students receive adds value to their resumes for employers.
Murphy-Scott says the certification program has made her “more mindful of the products and materials” used in the beauty industry.
“It is essential for the beauty industry to prioritize waste management because, while enhancing beauty and confidence in our clients, it also generates a significant waste that impacts the planet,” said Murphy-Scott. “As I progress, I aspire to work in a salon that shares my concern and interest about beauty waste as much as I do.”
The certification is part of the College’s broader commitment to sustainability, codified in its Strategic Plan.
“This program is a great example, because it takes something that normally is a ‘behind-the-scenes’ activity, managed by contract staff, and brings it right into the Teaching Salon where students, faculty, and customers are engaged and learning, while also reducing salon-related wastes away from landfill,” explained Wilkinson. “It’s another great illustration of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to which the College is committed.”
The relevant SDG’s include Quality Education, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Responsible Consumption and Production, and Partnership for the Goals.
About NC’s Teaching Salon
NC Teaching Hair Salon is an educational salon serviced by students in the College’s Hairstyling and Hairstylist Apprenticeship programs in the Pavilion building at the Welland Campus. Serving up to 80 clients each week, services include haircuts and colours, styling, barbering and perming. To make an appointment, call 905-735-2211 ext. 3620 and visit the website for current hours of operation: www.ncteachinghairsalon.ca.
