This Zero Waste Week (7-11 September 2026), Sustainable Salon Mentor Zoë Rees shares how sourcing sustainable milk products can improve your hair salon's carbon footprint.
As hairdressers, we often think of waste as being our colour tubes, foils and how we recycle. Although these are all very important, one area that can get overlooked is the staff kitchen.
How Hair Salons Can Source More Sustainable Products
One simple change that I’ve made recently is switching from barista oat milk in cartons to sustainable, powdered oat milk. After a little research, I discovered that oat milk is 90% water, meaning we're essentially paying to transport water which creates unnecessary waste.
By using an organic powdered oat milk, I simply mix the amount I need with fresh water in a reuseable glass bottle and this eliminates wasted unused oat milk I was having to throw away each week. I still get delicious, frothy, barista-quality oat milk from our coffee machine and our clients love it.
Brands that you can try include Overherd: which can be purchased from the official Overherd Store online, on Amazon, or at selected zero-waste and independent refill shops.
Easy Swaps to Help Hair Hair Salons Save Money
The financial saving is impressive too. I now spend £12.99 which lasts for around 2 months in my salon. Previously, I was spending £3.50 per week on cartons (and having to throw unused oat milk away) costing around £28 for the same period. That’s a saving of £90 per year, avoiding over 52 cartons of packaging and waste and saving on pouring away unused or out-of-date oat milk.
How to Improve Your Hair Salon's Carbon Footprint
Having taken a carbon literacy course last year, I found that each latte made with oat milk instead of cows milk will save up to 702g Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (CO2e) emissions. If my salon makes 8 lattes per day, we can save over 292,000g CO2e carbon emissions per year!
This is a great fresh new way to look beyond the obvious. Reducing waste doesn’t mean you have to make dramatic changes. The biggest impacts can sometimes be rethinking the everyday habits and those changes really add up. One cup of coffee at a time.
About the Expert
Zoë Rees is a hair stylist, salon owner and educator with over 17 years of experience in the industry. She is the owner of Bliss Hair Therapy in Worcestershire and is well-known for her work as an eco-friendly and sustainable salon mentor.
