10 ways to be more sustainable in the nail salon

Scratch serves up a practical guide to help reduce your environmental impact in your day-to-day working role as a nail pro…

1. Washing

When washing towels or other items of laundry, set your washing machine to an eco-level and hang them on a clothesline to dry whenever you get the chance. Clean your dryer’s lint filter before every use to reduce drying time and avoid rinsing dishes, mugs and cutlery before putting them in the dishwasher.

2. Lighting

Use energy efficient light bulbs. While delivering the same light levels, energy saving light bulbs reduce the release of greenhouse gases, often last longer and use a lot less energy.

Ask employees to turn off lights in staff/break rooms, storage rooms and vacant treatment rooms or invest in installing fixtures that are activated by a motion detector. If possible, install solar panels to produce your own energy.

3. Plentiful plants

Keep pollution-fighting plants in or outside of your salon. The oxygen produced by green plants helps to balance out carbon dioxide emissions and will also add to the salon’s appearance.

4. Pointless paper

Be rid of paper flyers and even printed loyalty cards: email and social media are eco-friendly marketing methods and efficient ways to communicate with clients. Identify and eliminate unnecessary forms, double side or redesign documents to use less space, or have them on electronic media such as a tablet. Laminating any printed documents will also allow you to reuse them for a lengthy amount of time, reducing paper waste.

5. Sustainable snacking

When it comes to providing drinks and nibbles for clients, replace any plastic straws with metal, paper or glass, or eliminate them altogether. Change any plastic drinking cups or coffee cups to a reusable mug or tumbler. For employees, consider gifting them a reusable bottle to use throughout the day to save them buying plastic bottled water.

6. Dismiss disposables

It may be more convenient to purchase disposable items, but the consequence is an enormous amount of physical waste, as well as the loss of energy needed to produce and break them down. Try replacing disposable products with long-lasting and reusable choices. Only replace disposable objets with safe and hygienic alternatives, ensuring any tools are fully sanitised and safe for reuse.

7. Inspire clients

A large part of practicing sustainability is passing on your knowledge to others and helping them to incorporate steps into their lives that can help the environment. Share your eco-activities with your clients- you may become their source of inspiration for both nails and sustainable practices!

8. Buying in bulk

Cut back on waste by buying larger sized products, for example nail supplies, cleaning products and other salon necessities. These can then be decanted into smaller, reusable containers for ease at the nail desk. Buying larger sized products cuts business costs but also minimises the packaging used and pollution caused when transporting goods to your salon on a regular basis.

9. Topping up with refills

When purchasing more of a product that you have previously used, buy refill packs where possible.

10. Recycle!

Recycle your old product bottles. Louella Belle has a recycling scheme called RecycLeBelle where they organise for a recycling company to collect your old bottles from any brand and they will then be sorted into different materials to be recycled and reused in the best possible way. In return, customers will receive 15% off their next order.