Keeping your salon compliant with new waste rules

Rebecca Waters of Initial Medical highlights new regulations affecting how you dispose of your salon’s rubbish.

Waste management responsibilities might not be the most exciting part of running a salon or aesthetic clinic, but they’re vital to keeping compliant. When new regulations are introduced, like the ‘Simpler Recycling’ initiative, brought in on 31st March this year, professionals should ensure they’re on top of any changes.

What are the new regulations?

The Simpler Recycling rules affect businesses with 10 or more full-time equivalent employees. It is a change to how business waste is managed, namely the need to separate waste items prior to collection.

Salons and clinics that have fewer than 10 fulltime equivalent employees will have to follow the regulations from 31st March 2027, so there is plenty of time to prepare if you haven’t put changes in place and fall into this category.

What items need to be separated?

All waste produced by staff, clients or other visitors to your salon or clinic needs to be separated. This includes:

• Dry recyclable materials (plastic, metal, glass, paper and card)

• Food waste

• Non-recyclable waste (sometimes called residual waste)

Separate bins are needed for each category, or you can collect them in one bin and separate the items prior to collection.

Glass recycling could include drinks bottles and rinsed empty food jars but would not include items such as salon mirrors. Broken mirrors can be collected with regular municipal waste or may be able to be sent to a separate recycling centre with the help of a specialist waste management service.

Metals would include drink cans, empty aerosols and aluminium foil, but wouldn’t include laminated foils or electrical items. Examples of paper and cardboard that need to be separated include packaging and envelopes.

Contaminated recyclable waste

1. Contamination occurs in two scenarios: The wrong items are put into a recycling bin, effectively ‘contaminating’ that waste when it is collected.

2. The waste items aren’t clean enough (there may be excess from products during treatments or food residue remaining).

Whilst salons and clinics aren’t expected to remove all contamination before collection, failure to comply may force action such as refusal to collect waste, additional collection fees or legal repercussions from the Environmental Agency.1 Paper and cardboard need to be separated because they are easily contaminated by other dry recyclable materials. Something as simple as picking up moisture from a glass bottle or metal drink can negatively impact the recycling opportunities for paper and cardboard.

What is a full-time equivalent employee?

The Simpler Recycling rules are based around employee count, affecting businesses with 10 or more full-time equivalent employees. If your salon or clinic is based across multiple locations, you’ll need to total all employees at all venues. Part-time employees can be included in your calculation based on their fraction of pro-rated hours. Volunteers, contractors and self-employed professionals (who may rent a space in your salon) are not counted.

Three changes to make immediately

To abide by these new regulations, here are three simple changes you can make today:

1. Contact a specialist waste management service with any questions you have and ensure they are able to collect your separated waste.

2. Place bins for each waste type near points of use or in communal/ working areas.

3. Ensure the whole team understands the new rules and related waste disposal workflows.

Such simple changes can support the environment by improving recycling opportunities, so ensure your waste workflows are up to date. For businesses with fewer than 10 employees, you have until 31st March 2027 to make these changes, otherwise take steps today!

1.Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (2025). Simpler recycling: workplace recycling in England. (Online) Available at: gov.uk/guidance/simpler-recyclingworkplace-recycling-in-england [Accessed August 2025].