You’re probably pretty good at recycling in the kitchen but what about the bathroom? In the US alone, more than 552 million shampoo bottles end up in landfill but fortunately, two Aussie companies are looking to change that. 

The Shampoo Collection is the world’s first closed-loop sunglasses and prescription sunglasses brand that has been created entirely out of old shampoo bottles. What’s more, it came about by a chance encounter. 

“It all started when I was walking past a Dresden Optical store and noticed they were promoting the recyclability of their glasses,’’ says Sustainable Salons co-founder Paul Frasca.

“We started a conversation, and began putting some of the plastic from our recycled shampoo bottles through their glasses. Then we decided to make an entire pair of glasses from 100 per cent of our bottles. A year later here we are launching 3500 pairs.’’

How it works 

Sustainable Salons collects empty shampoo and conditioner bottles from its 850 Australian and New Zealand salon members, these bottles are sorted and cleaned and sent to a specialist factory in Victoria which breaks the bottles down into pellets, which are then re-used to make products like the Shampoo Collection glasses.

They come in one style but in various sizes to choose from in Dresden’s signature black.

“With recycled plastic you’re melting down lots of different colours so the best option is to create black. And this is done adding recycled black shampoo or conditioner bottles to the mixture,’’ Paul says.

The range launches online and in Dresden stores on October 1.