David Vickers from Rand Rocket Discusses his Support for Recycle My Salon

[David Vickers]

Hi, my name is David Vickers. I'm the owner of Rand Rocket Limited.

[Marc Carey]

Thanks very much for joining us, David. I really appreciate it. We're here talking about Recycle My Salon. So we talked a little bit there, mentioning a number of things that you're seeing now and different trends, particularly with this new plastic tax that's coming in. So in terms of your business, what do you think was the unique value proposition for working alongside the Recycle My Salon project?

[DV]

The fact that it was pointed specifically at our industry, you know with the colour tubes and all of the colour on the foil that's going in the bin. There's somebody actually looking at how to get the dirt off and get it back into the industry.

[MC]

Do you think it's been a long time coming? Or do you think the timing is right?

[DV]

You can't start soon enough to save the planet, can you? When we launched into hair foil in 2006 one of the thoughts I had back then was how do we get the foil back, get it cleaned and reuse it? There wasn't a mechanism but now there is and that's good news.

[MC] 

Are you finding as well that sitting around the table with other sponsors that are getting behind this that there's more of a rapport around these issues?

[DV]

I think there's total agreement that this is possibly overdue, but we're glad it's here and let's make it happen.

[MC]

In terms of your business, have you made any other kind of commitments? Have you started thinking about sustainability within the business itself?

[DV]

Yes, I mean we've been going through a project at work of changing the lighting system for lower wattage LED bulbs. We've changed the heating system to use less carbon. We try to make sure we recycle old card and paper. Do all the little bits you can do.

[MC]

A lot more people are discussing these issues around the environment. I know a lot of us have been banging on about it for the best part of 20 years. So it's not new to everybody in these forums. Do you think that social media has played a part in making people more aware of what's really going on around the world?

[DV]

It certainly opens up the world to a lot more conversations that you would never have seen, doesn't it? You can see what's going on in parts of the world, even if it's just through Facebook, like seeing your friends sharing their experiences from around the world and so you get a lot more understanding of that perspective.

[MC] 

I think it's a double-edged sword, social media, you get a lot of the regular “look at my coffee and my cinnamon bun” but they are also people who are sharing some really important issues, particularly around the environment. A lot of people are looking at ways to combat climate change and global warming. I guess I'm imagining that, particularly with schemes such as Recycle My Salon, they'll start to filter through and we'll see that on the ground. Do you think it's going to come from both areas? Do you think that there'll be a groundswell from the consumer asking about the products and the services of the companies?

[DV] 

Well, we know that our demographic is largely women, a lot of whom are younger and have got young kids, and that demographic is very switched on to save the planet for future generations, maybe more so than my own generation. For that demographic, given another opportunity to do something, as you say locally, to do their bit for the planet is just another strand that feeds into the mindset of being planet-friendly.

[MC]

Yeah. You know industry experts such as yourself give an element of kudos to the project. Is that something that you think you're aware of, the fact that you're standing up and being counted as an independent in the market? Do you think that helps convince people or do you think people will make their own minds up about this?

[DV]

That's an interesting question. We hadn't thought of that when we said we were going to get behind this project because we just felt this project was the right thing to do. I've wanted it for 15/16 years. All right I'm not Nike or Coca Cola but if you've got those who are big names within your own smaller industry encouraging people to get on board, I'm sure it can. It can't hurt and I'm sure it can help. 

[MC]

Yeah, well coming back to your point about the demographic, the millennials and Gen Zed are the consumers now aren't they? They're in the marketplace, they're the ones that are out there spending the dollar and the pound and they look to their influencers to inform them about the things that they should be concerned about and looking at. So when you get these people that have got real kudos in the industry then I think it goes somewhere. Just a final point, and thank you very much for spending some time with us this morning, what more do you think could be done across all industries? 

[DV]

Have a look, have a review, change your ways. It all starts with going "is there something more I can do?" and then working it out for yourself. 

[MC]

Well David thank you very much for joining us today and thank you for supporting Recycle My Salon, I know it's a brilliant scheme. Have you got any final thoughts that you want to share regarding the scheme?

[DV]

Get on board, it's going to help save our planet and that's a very good thing.