People dye and bleach their hair more often than they would like to admit. Whether it is done at home or in a salon, the process of bleaching or dying hair involves a lot of steps and can lead to a lot of wastes. Disposing of waste products is a vital step because a wrong move could lead to a lot of environmental damage. Below are some tips for disposing of hair bleach and dyes;
Disposing hair bleach
Below are some methods through which you can dispose of hair bleach:
Hazardous waste
The first thing you need to do is to check your local rules and regulations for information on proper disposal of bleaches. Note that hair bleach is a hazardous chemical and some waste facilities do not accept it. However, with proper research, you should be able to find some information on waste facilities that accept hazardous chemicals. Note that you can only do this with hair bleach that is in an empty or used container.
Diluting Hair Bleach
You can also dilute the bleach with water as you pour it down the drain of your sink or bathroom. All you have to do is turn the faucet on first then slowly pour the bleach into the drain as the water runs until the container is empty. Once all the bleach is down the drain, leave the water running for at least a minute before turning the faucet off. You can also choose to flush the bleach down the toilet. However, only do this for small amounts of bleach. You also need to flush twice or thrice to make sure it is completely diluted. Please only do this if you are unable to reuse or donate as this will still harm aquatic life.
Disposing of hair dye
You can get rid of waste hair dye by:
Hazardous material
Like with hair bleach, hair dye should never be thrown in the garbage or compost bin. This is because it contains certain dangerous chemicals that could be toxic to the environment, animals, and human beings. Therefore, you need to make sure you get rid of the products in safe ways. Start by checking the local area rules on how to get rid of hazardous chemicals.
Donating or sharing
If you cannot safely dispose of the dye, the best course of action would be to share or donate it. By doing so, you can be sure that the chemicals will not cause any harm to the environment.
Disposing of the hair bleach or dye container
Once you have gotten rid of the dye or bleach, proceed to check the container to see if it is recyclable. If the container does not provide such information, you can ask your local recycling facility if they accept bleach and dye containers.
Conclusion
Always try and keep or donate your bleach or hair dye to avoid having to dispose of the toxic waste.
Never throw away unused hair dye or bleach in the garbage or flush it down the sink without diluting it first. Mixing hair dyes and bleaches into the water system poses a challenge to the waste facility workers. The workers often have a hard time filtering the products out of the water hence making it unusable and toxic.
