We’ve put the Hair Expo X Sustainable Salons Sustainability Partnership back in the spotlight leading into this year’s event!
Following the Sustainability Audit Report of the 2017 event, the Hair Expo and Sustainable Salons teams put their collective heads together and decided to tackle possibly the biggest issue on site – the industry’s hectic coffee addiction. While we can’t do anything about the caffeine intake of 10,000 hairdressers (nor would we want to… gotta keep the creative juices flowing, we say!), the one-use cups issue definitely falls into our domain.
Last year, Sustainable Salons discovered that 20,000 coffee cups were discarded over the three-day event. Yikes!
This year, we’ve enlisted the help of specialist coffee cup recycler Simply Cups in an effort to save all of these from ending up buried in our soil.
“We all know hairdressers are fuelled by coffee, but this is an issue that affects more than just the salon industry,” says Paul Frasca, Sustainable Salons Co-founder and MD. “While this step will eliminate unnecessary landfill, it will also be an important example of how one group of people can have an immediate impact when they decide to take a stand.
“We’re so excited to show the community that hairdressers care about their footprint even when they’re away from the salon… and that we’re doers!”
Hear hear, Paul, that we are! And by working with Simply Cups, we’re pretty chuffed to be contributing to an innovative, local solution to boot!
Simply Cups is Australia’s first coffee cup recycling program – these guys collect the coffee cups in tall, green tubes (keep an eye out for them next to the regular bins on the Expo floor) and take them back to their depot in readiness for recycling. They’re working with local innovators to develop technology that separates the plastic lining from the paper cup, so cups from Hair Expo will be among the first processed in this way.
“We are proud to take the first steps to ensuring a sustainable Hair Expo event in partnership with Sustainable Salons” says Cory Watson, Event Director for Hair Expo Australia. “Ensuring thousands of coffee cups don’t end up in landfill is a hugely impactful way that we can move toward our goal of being a more environmentally friendly event by 2020.”
What other green schemes can you expect at Hair Expo this year?
Well, in a very exciting pilot program, we’ll be distributing Sustainable Salons Separation Bins to 33 eco-conscious Exhibitors – each has chosen to reduce the environmental impact of their stand by having all discarded HAIR, PAPER or PLASTIC resources collected by us during the event. These materials will contribute to our ongoing support of OzHarvest, with all proceeds from repurposing helping to provide meals for those in need.
We’re standing together for a sustainable salon industry… come and stand with us!
Hair Expo Australia 2018 takes place at the MCEC from Saturday 9 to Monday 11 June. Visit www.hairexpoaustralia.com for more information.
