Every year tons and tons of hair clippings and unused product end up in landfills and waterways. Now one Nashville salon is taking a hairy situation and doing something about it.
A simple hair cut or a partial highlight doesn't seem like it would hurt the environment but every bit and snip adds up.
"Between the water and the products and the color and the foil and all of the hair," said Lauren Gish, co-owner and stylist at Fruition Salon.
"It just goes along with what we believe in personally as well and what we do at home," she said. "We have a bin for unused color. A bin for hair and a bin for our foils. And we separate them and we send them to a warehouse in Chicago and then they have a recycling facility that takes care of all those things for us."
It's an idea promoted by Green Circle Salons, a company out of Canada. They approach individual salons and help them go green.
According to Green Circle, since 2009, their salons have recycled and re-purposed more than 2.3 million pounds of waste.
In 2010, they even sent hair clippings to help absorb the BP oil spill, using it to stuff booms.
"I think at first people can be a little grossed out. But I think that they think it's really cool especially once we explain to them how much more effective hair is and what science is coming up with the fibers and how they can be recycled," said Gish.
Customers pay an extra $2 eco-fee per hair service to help support the program.
