National anti-packaging campaign urges customers to buy "naked" goods

Stripping down to their skivvies and for the boldest even their birthday suits, employees of LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics will lead a cheeky protest on Saturday, August 18th at 12pm outside their store to urge shoppers to go 'naked' by purchasing goods that don't have any packaging. The brave shop workers hope this stunt will send out an important message to Canadians about the devastating environmental impact of packaged goods sold in cosmetic shops, grocers, fast food outlets and other retailers.

The environment is one of the biggest global issues we face today and for Canadians the statistics make sobering reading as we produce 25.2 million tonnes of waste in a year¹ - meaning we each generate 2-2.5kg of garbage everyday², making us one of the highest per capita greenhouse gas emitters than just about any other country in the world.

LUSH wants people to "get real" about their efforts to combat climate change and to protect the Earth's scarce natural resources by asking shoppers to take action by avoiding packaged goods. So now is the time to 'get naked' and avoid using those mountains of plastic carrier bags, plastic coffee cups and plastic bottles used for cosmetic products which all contribute to the growing environmental crisis.

Since LUSH came on the scene 12 years ago, its philosophy has always been based on ethics and having the least amount of impact on the environment, while still producing effective beauty products. LUSH leads the cosmetics industry in efforts to eliminate packaging by selling solid 'naked' products that do not require plastic bottles. By removing the water from the product, LUSH's innovative solid shampoo bars, conditioners, massage bars, body butters, bubble bars and soaps are sold to the customer deli-style, without any packaging. As a result, last year alone approximately 3 million plastic bottles were not manufactured, transported and disposed of because customers chose to buy LUSH's solid shampoo bars instead of a bottled product.

The 'Get Naked' campaign is part of a coordinated global effort with similar events happening across LUSH stores worldwide. Mark Constantine, LUSH founder believes "Packaging is rubbish and for too long we have had to suffer excessive amounts of it. Now that the true financial and environmental costs are becoming obvious, customers are challenging manufacturers and retails to cut the wrap. Companies like ours need to think outside the box and present customers with innovations that allow them to buy truly naked products."

Notes to the Editor:

total waste produced across Canada in 2004. Source: Statistics Canada, Environment Accounts and Statistics Division -http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/envir25a.htm thecanadianencyclopedia.com

• All of LUSH's paper bags, cardboard boxes and reusable tins are made from recycled materials.
• Naked products are better for the environment-they are unpackaged, concentrated, last longer and weigh less than water-filled bottled liquids which take more energy to transport. For example, one lorry load of LUSH's solid shampoo bars would be enough for 800,000 washes but it would take 15 lorry loads of liquid shampoo to do the same job. That means more pollution, and a much bigger carbon footprint.
• LUSH support Fair Trade programs and where possible source raw materials locally, i.e. LUSH supports local farmers in British Columbia by harvesting seaweed off the coast of Vancouver Island, sourcing stout from an organic brewery, and obtaining honey from a small local bee farm.
• 58% of products are free of wasteful packaging, 65% of products are preservative-free and 100% of products are vegetarian. LUSH have a strict no animal testing policy and reward customers who reuse and recycle LUSH shopping bags.
• To encourage the purchase of naked products, LUSH will be handing out samples of Buffy body butter and a special coupon on the day which a customer can redeem starting August 18th to September 30th to receive a free 'naked' product of their choice.

Some interesting facts about Environmental waste:

• Despite the fact that oil is running out, we still waste it on packaging. Plastic production is said to use 8% of the world's oil resources; 4% of oil is turned into plastic and the other 4% is used during its manufacture (source:www.foe.co.uk)
• Recycling all of your home's waste newsprint, cardboard, glass and metal can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 400 kg a year (source: Earth Care). The good news is that we Canadians do manage to recycle 22 percent of our garbage (source: www.readersdigest.ca)
• By the age of 6 months, the average Canadian has consumed the same amount of resources as the average person in the developing world consumes in a lifetime (source: Recycling Council of Ontario)
• In a lifetime, the average North American will throw away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage. A 68 kg adult will leave a legacy of 40,825 kg of trash (source: Natural Resources Canada)