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Beauty Industry Sustainability with SalonCentric’s Ben Thompson

Step inside the beauty industry’s sustainability journey and discover how salons, brands and consumers are working together to keep more materials in use and out of landfills.

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What happens to your shampoo bottle after it’s empty? Or the foils, applicators and other materials from your trip to the salon?

In this episode of Sustainably Speaking, host Mia Quinn travels to SalonCentric in Chicago to meet with Ben Thompson—a chemical engineer and sustainability leader—to explore how the beauty industry is rethinking packaging, recycling and waste.

The beauty industry generates significant amounts of waste every day, and Ben shares how they’re working to change that. From SalonCentric’s partnership with Green Circle to smarter packaging design, brands, salons and recyclers are working together to recover more materials and build a more circular system.

You’ll hear how SalonCentric’s recycling program helps salons recycle up to 95% of their waste. It’s expanding to stores nationwide and has already diverted more than 550,000 pounds of material from landfill in 2025, during the initiative’s early stages.

Along the way, Ben explains why simpler packaging design can make recycling easier, how refill systems are reducing waste, and why creating a more sustainable future sometimes starts with something as simple as taking a few extra seconds to recycle an empty bottle. It’s an inspiring conversation about innovation, collaboration, and choices that can make a big difference.

Guest Bios

  • Ben Thompson, Vice President – Sustainability, SalonCentric

    Ben Thompson leads sustainability efforts at SalonCentric, the professional beauty industry’s largest distributor, where he is building a full-circle approach to packaging recyclability across the brand’s retail and wholesale network.

    He joined SalonCentric from PepsiCo, where he worked on the global packaging R&D team leading sustainability and commercialization for food and beverage packaging. With a background in chemical engineering and material sciences, including depolymerization and advanced chemical recycling, Ben brings deep expertise in designing, collecting, and reincorporating packaging materials into a circular economy.

    Since joining SalonCentric, he has launched a strategic partnership with Green Circle Salons, deploying take-back programs across more than 600 stores nationwide and diverting more than 550,000 pounds of salon waste from landfills in the program’s first year.

  • Mia Quinn, Senior Director, Public Affairs at American Chemistry Council

    Mia Quinn leads efforts to communicate the plastics industry’s major sustainability initiatives. She works to bring together experts to share insights in key areas of sustainability, including public policy, product design, recycling, and infrastructure. She is passionate about collaboration, clear communication, and engaging audiences to learn more about innovation and modern solutions for our communities and our country. Mia has a degree in political science from Washington University in St. Louis. She grew up in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado and is a lifelong Denver Broncos fan. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and two sons.

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