Difference between revisions of "The Social Club Grooming Company Adventure"
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* Composting untreated hair is safe and effective | * Composting untreated hair is safe and effective | ||
* The safety of composting treated hair is questionable | * The safety of composting treated hair is questionable | ||
| + | ** We need to know what chemicals are commonly used to treat hair | ||
| + | ** Then we need to evaluate for potential toxicity and environmental fate | ||
* It takes one to two years for hair to break down completely in compost or soil | * It takes one to two years for hair to break down completely in compost or soil | ||
* As it decomposes, hair releases nitrogen, an essential plant macro-nutrient | * As it decomposes, hair releases nitrogen, an essential plant macro-nutrient | ||
Revision as of 15:08, 26 June 2012
This is a working page for the Social Club Grooming Company, Sebastian Jackson.
The Social Club Grooming Company is a hair/massage salon located on the Wayne State campus. Sebastian's goal is to turn his business into a triple bottom line sustainable business, and to engage his clients/students in growing their awareness of their impact on the environment and their community.
The topics we will research are:
- Water
- Waste
- Energy
- Toxicity/Health/Products
- Learning Community
Contents
June 5, 2012
The "Social" in Social Club has a dual meaning:
* It is a place for people to come and interact with other members of the community
* It represents and example of social responsibility: Sebastian says, "Everything we do we want to do in a socially responsible way."
Sebastian is a senior at WSU - worked at the salon for about 3 years, then the business closed down and he eventually bought it and took over. Currently there are 7 employees with 6 more to be hired in the fall.
He wants the physical building to be more sustainable as well as their business practices (ex: they are composting the men's hair and using women's hair (which is normally treated) in oil spill collection process.
3D Continuous improvement process: The business has been up and running now for the past 5 weeks. But a business is more than just profit - where is the community and the planet in all of this?
Sustainability is a systems change ("there is no away"): There is a change process and a human process that need to be made organically and naturally. It takes more time than we would normally expect.
Work Cycle (diagram at right): In every 2 month time period, we will take one small change from the beginning conception to implementation. Although this process may seem slow, actually bringing about these changes within a working community takes time and is a lot of work - in reality, 2 months is very fast.
Scheduled Topics (diagram at right):
June/July: Hair August/September: Recycling October/November: Product Toxicity
Next week: Amount of hair - treated vs. not treated, How much is needed, is all hair the same? Are some types of treatment eco-friendly? Are they all toxic? Options for the reuse of hair: local options? or does the hair have to travel - storage and shipment? Is hair storage a health problem?
June - July 2012 Project: Waste Hair
Human Hair Background
The Basics - Hair 101
Hair is unique to mammals and is quite complex. Some key facts are:
- A total of around 150,000 follicles on the human head.
- The rate or speed of hair growth is about 0.5 inches per month, or about 6 inches per year.
- An important biomaterial primarily composed of protein, notably keratin.
- Hair fibers have a structure consisting of several layers. Starting from the outside:
- the cuticle which consists of several layers of flat, thin cells laid out overlapping one another as roof shingles,
- the cortex, which contains the keratin bundles in cell structures that remain roughly rod-like; and in some cases,
- the medulla, a disorganized and open area at the fiber's center.[3]
- important because hair found on the head serves as primary sources of heat insulation and cooling (when sweat evaporates from soaked hair) as well as protection from ultra-violet radiation exposure.
- The growth of hair in the follicles occurs in cycles. In each cycle, afollicle goes through a growth phase, transition phase and resting phase. 50 to 100 hairs a day fall-off naturally.
Hair Raising Stats
- 278 customers for one month
- 200 - 238 haircuts
- 3 lb 5oz cut hair / volume 9"x 15" x 12" = 1 cu ft uncompressed
- Splitting hairs
- Treated vs. Non-treated (men's)
- Clean vs. not washed hair
ReUse
Questions: How can we complete the circle with hair? What is it made of and how can it be reused/recycled? Does it make a difference if the hair is clean (shampooed) or dirty? What do we mean by treated or untreated hair?
Ideas for recycling/reuse:
Note: Matter of Trust not taking hair anymore.
- Wigs: Child's wig takes 12-25 ponytails (10-12 in) to make one wig (Sebastian estimates about 5% of the hair can be used for this)
- Plant food Smartgrow mulch / fertilizer
- Weed repellent
- Rodent/deer repellent
- Jewelry and apparel
- Extracting L-cysteine from the hair to be used in commercial bread production or nutritional vitamin supplement. Helps soft tissue recovery post surgery
- For bird nests
- Absorb oil spills/leaks (hair booms can be wrung out and re-used)
- Paintbrushes
- Insulation?
- Heating/ventilation filters
- Furniture stuffing
- Compost (companies will sterilize hair before using it)
- Link to composting human hair info, passed along by Mary Gerstenberger, Consumer Horticulture Coordinator for Macomb County MSU Extension
Rodent/Deer Repellent:
Deer and other rodents don't like smell of humans, so use of hair clippings to keep them away from gardens is commonly used. Some disagreement as to its effectiveness - perhaps deer are getting used to being around humans and are not as repelled by their smell.
- Hair can either be hung in mesh bags around perimeter (or socks or stockings) or placed loose on the ground around the plants.
- This seems to be most effective in protecting the less preferred plants
- Hair should be dirty, not shampooed
- U of Conn study showed that human hair was about 34% effective as a deer repellent
- Deer do not like the smell of deodorant soap, so sometimes soap shavings can be mixed with hair, put in a mesh bag and hung around perimeter of garden.
Composting:
- Composting untreated hair is safe and effective
- The safety of composting treated hair is questionable
- We need to know what chemicals are commonly used to treat hair
- Then we need to evaluate for potential toxicity and environmental fate
- It takes one to two years for hair to break down completely in compost or soil
- As it decomposes, hair releases nitrogen, an essential plant macro-nutrient
- Hair can also be added directly to soil, but it's suggested that it be chopped up and incorporated so that it doesn't mat
- Hair could be collected in totes and then transported directly to the composting facility or to a transfer area once a month
- In terms of volume of material, hair should be less than 10% of the total volume so that the carbon to nitrogen ratio of the composting process remains in balance
After reviewing several options for recycling/reusing the hair clippings for The Social Club, it became clear very quickly that using the hair for composting would be the best option. In addition, it fits the 3D model of sustainable business practices:
- Economically feasible as there is little to no cost involved
- Environment: using the hair to create compost for gardens leaves no waste by returning the hair to the earth
- Community: composting helps to support the community organization, "Friends of Palmer Park" where the compost will be used in the replanting of the park.
Links to Other Information
Your Organic Beauty Solutions, Being sustainable is not only about recycling and organic beauty product lines. The sustainability of your company is equally important.
Matter of Trust, recycling hair clippings
Human hair waste provides nutrients to container plants
How to use in garden soil, Other uses: deer and slug repellent, mulch
Marketing human hair to be used as a consumer good Human hair, in common with wool, silk, and other organic materials, has a very high nitrogen content, and in the soil, nitrogen encourages tissue growth. If the sweepings from a barber shop were regularly applied to a compost heap, an enormous amount of nitrogen could be recovered. Six to seven pounds of human hair contain approximately one pound of nitrogen, as much as found in 100 to 200 pounds of manure. What's more, hair will disintegrate as easily as feathers, as long as it is kept in a well-moistened compost heap.
Using dyed or permed hair in compost
Hair waste clippings tips, bird nests, pin cushions
Curl Up & Dye hair salon in Midtown Detroit
Best Management Practices for Hair Salons to reduce your impact on the environment, from an environmental services agency in Canada
Health Hazards of formaldehyde in salon products - OSHA
Susan Henry hair care products
organic hair salons in metro detroit
Green Hair Salon in Portland Oregon
Nori's Eco Salon in Encino, CA
Article from Scientific American
GreenYour: how to find an eco-friendly hair salon
Green Circle Salons Canadian consulting firm helping salons green their practices.
Waste Minimization for Hair and Beauty Salons and Barber Shops Alberta, Canada guideline to reducing hair business waste
Healthy Hair Care US EPA resource page
