Daisy Kapusta, has been a hair stylist for more than 30 years, and when a new recycling opportunity came along, she couldn’t resist.
“I was like, wow, I want to do this,” said Kapusta of her initial reaction when she learned of the Green Circle Salons program.
“We’re super excited, we all wanted to do this.”
After paying an initial fee to participate in the program, Kapusta and her partners at Attitude Hair Designs, Dayna Maidens-Short and Ashley McWhirter, have embraced the program that recycles much of the waste produced by the hair salon.
To participate in the recycling program, the various waste items, explained Kapusta, must be sorted and placed in appropriate waste bins.
“It’s a little bit more work for us, but we don’t mind doing it, we think it’s great and we want to try and do our part,” said Kapusta.
Green Circle collects the separate bins containing the foils and other metals, plastics, paper, chemicals and hair.
The partners at Attitude Hair Design are busy enough that they fill up each of the containers, and seeing the waste going to recycling makes the effort worthwhile.
“We all do it at home, but our industry has been notoriously bad for polluting because everything goes into the trash,” said Kapusta.
In addition to the recycling, Kapusta and her partners, are also impressed with some of the ways Green Circle repurposes the hair they collect.
“Hair and recycled nylons for the creation of oil booms used in oil and chemical spills,” she reads from the company’s information sheet.
“That’s the biggest one that we’ve heard of.”
With three stylists on duty, a lot of hair gets swept up in a day at Attitude Hair design said Kapusta, which makes participating in the program all the more worthwhile.
Although the partners at Attitude Hair Design decided to pass on to their clients part of the cost of participating in the program, their clients are supportive of the recycling program and have not balked at paying the extra $1.50 recycling charge.
For the enthusiastic clients, Kapusta goes so far as to show them the bins.
“That’s great,” Kapusta said is the most frequent answer when she tells her clients about the recycling program. “So far all of our clients have been on board.”