VICTORIA -- Foxy Box Laser and Wax Bar has joined a program to cut down on waste and recycle personal protective equipment (PPE).

The chain of wax bars on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland joined the Green Circle Salons recycling program on Earth Day.

“Just to keep our world a little bit greener and especially our beautiful province,” says Melinda Rose, owner of the Foxy Box outlet at Victoria’s Uptown mall.

The business is helping to turn things like wax strips, sticks, and other single-use items into renewable energy.

Disposable items are collected in bins at each location, and sent away weekly to be incinerated, with energy going back into the power grid.

“We create, as you can imagine, quite a bit of waste here with our wax strips and our single-use items, and our sticks and our PPE,” said Rose.

“It’s really important to me,” Rose said. “And I hope that other salons will jump on board with this.”

Through the program, the personal protective equipment is being repurposed into things like asphalt and artificial turf, Rosa said.

Foxy Box has set up a storefront bin where anyone can drop off their used PPE for recycling.