In New Zealand, we discard around 15.5 million tonnes of waste each year. Despite the perception that we are a ‘clean and green’ country, these figures show the enormity of waste we produce as a nation.
So where does Dermalogica NZ fit into this?
We have partnered with Sustainable Salons, a revolutionary resource recovery programme designed to help salons achieve zero waste, reduce their carbon footprint and implement sustainable work practices that benefit the local community. The program has hundreds of salon members (and growing!) in the hairdressing, beauty and pet-grooming sectors across Australia and New Zealand as part of the journey to zero waste.
Partnering with Sustainable Salons allows us to divert up to 95% of packaging waste from landfill and instead have it sent for recycling. To date, Sustainable Salons have diverted 58,605kg of materials from landfill in New Zealand - Plastic product bottles, packaging and bags are recycled into outdoor furniture and kept out of our oceans, glass vials, pipettes and treatment bottles are collected and recycled into new products and select disposable hygiene products used during treatments and training are pulled apart and the materials are sent for repurposing.
Dermalogica globally is working towards the goal of ensuring that 100% of our plastic packaging is fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. We are also committing to:
• Halving the amount of virgin plastic we use in our packaging• Helping collect and process more plastic packaging than we sell
• Increasing the recycled plastic material content in our packaging to 25%.
Not only do Sustainable Salons help us with saving our planet, they also help us give back to our local communities. Over 50% of their NZ depot team members are disabled, helping those with a disability build stronger futures by providing purposeful work within their material collection and processing streams. Supported Employees head out on the road with trained staff members to collect resources from salons in several areas across our network, while another team sorts and processes the materials for repurposing!
Sustainable Salons also use all proceeds from sold recycling and donate it to local organisations to provide meals for those in need – so far they have generated enough revenue from the sales of salon waste to provide 11,800 meals for those in need via KiwiHarvest. Cool, huh!