Salon Evolve of Limerick has joined a growing recycling and sustainability program run by Green Circle Salons. The goal of the program is to significantly reduce the industry’s environmental impact.

Salon Evolve owner Kim McQuillan’s salon at 214 W. Ridge Pike in Limerick is one of the nearly 2,100 salons across the U.S. and Canada that have become Green Circle certified.

The salon officially joined the initiative June 1, but McQuillan said as soon as the staff heard about the program they began collecting and saving items, rather than throwing them out, writes Donna Rovins in The Times Herald.

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Through its partnership with Green Circle Salons, McQuillan’s Salon Evolve is collecting what was once considered garbage — including hair clippings, extensions, excess color and developer, papers and plastics, foils, aerosol cans and color tubes.

That waste is then shipped to Green Circle Salons where it is repurposed into innovative green solutions. McQuillan expects Salon Evolve will be able to reduce its total waste by as much as 95 percent.

“Had I known about this, we would have been doing it sooner,” she added.

Hair clippings, for example, can be turned into hair booms to clean up oil spills or made into pillows for international aid efforts. Color tubes and used foils can be recycled into new metal and chemical residue can be recycled into new sources of energy.

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