As part of its drive to be greener, British cosmetics company Lush has come up with a great solution for packaging: instead of using polystyrene chips to keep fragile items intact in the post, the chain is now using an edible and far more biodegradable solution: popcorn!
The popcorn packaging, an idea so simple and clever I'm amazed nobody else has thought of it, will be rolled out as of next month. Until now, Lush used shredded paper in the boxes in which it sold soaps, massage bars and other delicate items, so the popcorn packaging will obviously reduce the amount of paper used by the chain. However, a side effect of this is that transport emissions will also be reduced, since popcorn is 60% lighter than paper.
Plastic bag usage will also be slashed, as products placed in boxes used to be encased in polythene as they would otherwise be damaged by ink in the paper. Popcorn is a 'clean' filler, so Lush can now send out most of its products with no plastic packaging at all, resulting in the saving of 4.6 million plastic bags each year.
I wonder how many other companies will take up this tasty idea?
