The co-founders of a social enterprise that rescues up to 95% of salon resources from landfill have been awarded Small Business Champion by the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA).

Sustainable Salons co-founders Paul Frasca and Ewelina Soroko were recognised for their impact on the hairdressing industry and setting a clear example of how small business can drive sustainability.

COSBOA awards a Small Business Champion every year at their National Small Business Summit to recognise and acknowledge small business influencers who are making a genuine difference to their industry or the sector.

Peter Strong, CEO of COSBOA, said this is a small business who are worthy winners of this prestigious award. “Their vision to make ‘salon waste’ history, is truly inspiring!”

“These are people who are innovative and open to change, stopping at no boundaries, they have done some amazing things; not only connecting the hairdressing community, but they have built a successful business, and they’ve done it sustainably,” said Mr Strong.

Paul Frasca, Managing Director, Hairdresser and self-confessed ‘above-ground miner’, was thrilled with the win, saying it was their fantasy business plan that pushed them to make a difference.

“It’s an honour to be awarded this as a small business. Ewelina and I started this business by really creating a fantasy business plan, while travelling around Australia, we wanted to create a business that we wanted to wake up to every day.

“This business plan captured more than just recycling, it was actually about solving community issues, and more importantly the profiting issues within that. Because every time someone thinks of a green idea, they say, ‘it’s not making any money’, but it can today. What we did in our business to make it successful was to solve the community issue, the recycling issue, and the profitability issue - that is truly ‘sustainability’.

Paul explained that Sustainable Salons have designed an above-ground mining business for the hairdressing industry; collecting up to 95% of the salon’s waste bin and repurposing it for environmental and community benefit.

“We’ve got more than 800 members of Sustainable Salons (and growing!) in the hairdressing, barbering, beauty and pet-grooming sectors across Australia and New Zealand.

“We are thrilled with everything we have achieved for our community as a business and with lots of exciting new research into uses of hair, we are committed and eager to see what the future of sustainability in above-ground mining looks like,” finished Mr Frasca.

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