How H2o Salon Recycles
H2o Salon is committed to finding new ways to be ecofriendly. Recently, we undertook to recycle all of the sheets of aluminum foil that we use for highlighting, in addition to recycling the plastic bottles of products that we use for styling, shampooing and conditioning our clients’ hair. But recycling these sheets and bottles isn’t as easy as it might sound. To help others, we’d like to share a few of the things we’ve learned about recycling in Urbana.
Hair Foils
Every day, every salon in the nation uses small, brand new sheets of aluminum foil to separate hair when highlighting. In that respect, H2o Salon is no different! Every foil that touches our clients’ hair is always brand new and has never been used before. But when we’re finished with a foil at H2o Salon, we don’t simply throw it into the garbage where it’ll find its way to a landfill. Instead, H2o Salon recycles our hair foils.
Doing so is not as easy as merely tossing them into the recycling bin, however! Before we recycle a sheet of aluminum foil, we must first wash it thoroughly with soap and hot water, removing any trace of hair product (or hair!) from the foil. Then, we lay the sheets out flat so they can dry completely. After this, we ball the foil sheets up together, creating a large ball. Too small of a ball, and the aluminum foil won’t be recycled, but instead will be removed and put in the garbage! We aim to make a ball the size of a grapefruit or larger, to be sure that the aluminum foil will make its way through the recycling process. Balling up the aluminum foil can be quite fun, however. It can be a great activity for your kids and a fun way to get them involved in the recycling process!
Hard Plastics
Like hair foils, plastic bottles cannot be recycled without being thoroughly cleaned. We wash and dry every bottle, taking care to make sure that all product residue has been removed from the container. We also do this for any food containers we’ve brought in for lunches, snacks or parties. According to the guidelines put forth by Urbana, if a container even smells of food, it will be removed from the recycling process and placed in the garbage. Take care to clean your plastics before placing them in the recycling bin!
Soft Plastics
In Urbana, soft plastics like Ziploc bags are not recyclable, unfortunately. Plastic bags like the kind you get at the grocery store also cannot go into your regular curbside bin because of the damage they can do to the recycling machinery. However, all is not lost. You can still recycle these bags!
Several major retailers around the Urbana-Champaign area will take plastic bags, including Walmart. At Walmart in particular, be sure to look for the big blue boxes marked for recycling near the entrance. To find other retail locations that take plastic bags for recycling, check out the website “Plastic Film Recycling” and use their Dropoff Location Lookup feature. https://www.plasticfilmrecycling.org/recycling-bags-and-wraps/find-drop-off-location/. There are a number of options for recycling plastic bags in Urbana-Champaign!
Now you know a few ways that H2o Salon recycles. We hope we’ve inspired you to recycle as well, and given you some helpful information for helping save the planet!