SOCIAL DRIVE
ECO BEAUTY: One Industry, One Environment, Many Little Changes HOW CHRISTINE SPEARHEADED A “GREEN” MOVEMENT THAT COULD EVENTUALLY BECOME THE SALON INDUSTRY NORM By Alley L. Biniarz | Photography: Syx Langemann Christine Withington didn’t consider herself to be the most eco-friendly person. She was just a business owner who wanted to bring something new to the salon industry—or at least, that’s how it began.
final touch– that last bit that would change the nature of her salon: Green Circle Salons.
Green Circle Salons is a company that brings a sustainable solution to the salon industry by taking the time to properly Christine fell in love with a product, but recycle products that would ordinarily end she had no idea that her switch to Kevin up in the landfill or our water system. Murphy would result in an entire sustain“I found out that not only could we able future for her business, Salon Cure, recycle hair, but our aluminum foils and creating bio-plastic bags, or making pillows and for herself. colour tubes could be recycled too. The for dogs in shelters. Finally, the aluminum The high-performing hair product was amount of hair that we collect is crazy, and taken from colour tubes and foils is often everything she was looking for and more. instead of throwing it into the garbage, here repurposed into bike parts. With the line being sulfate-free, sustain- was this alternative. I thought about the bags The first step for Christine was to ably packaged and sourced, Christine and bags of product that wouldn’t have to receive specific boxes from Green Circle. saw a future for her business that allowed end up in the garbage, and my excitement The boxes are sorted into separate “waste” haircare and eco-friendliness to co-exist: grew,” Christine says. materials—foils, dyes and bottles—and the something that was not normally said So what happens with the “waste” instead? second step was to ship it back to Toronto about the industry. Once the salon’s waste is sent to the via UPS. Christine loved the idea of being She had to make a choice then and there, Green Circle headquarters in Toronto, the able to look around her salon and say with and she removed every other product from company properly filters and disposes of hair confidence that nothing there would go in her shelves. Though doing this was finan- dyes and other chemicals by separating them the garbage. It could all be repurposed or cially nerve-wracking, Christine went with from the water, keeping them out of our properly recycled. her gut and she began researching more water treatment plants. The hair collected Christine’s entire purpose became about about the brand and her options. She was is taken and made into wombs to clean the environment. She wanted to be able to obsessed and excited about the possibilities up oceans and lakes. With the abundance ride her motorcycle through our country as she scoured through other Kevin Murphy of excess hair collected recently, a few and look up at the clean blue sky. She salon videos. And that’s when she saw the pilot projects have been launched, such as 10
