Toronto, ON)—As part of an Earth Day campaign to ban plastic shopping bags from cities across Canada, LUSH Cosmetics is sending giant ‘bag monsters’ to descend on shoppers in eight cities, urging them to swap their plastic shopping bags with a free, reusable, eco-friendly tote bag. Each bag monster, which resembles a walking, talking trash heap, is made of 350 plastic bags—the amount of bags an average family of four will use in just four months. Other protestors will be holding placards that read ‘Starve the bag monster—ban plastic bags!’ while other staff hand out educational leaflets to passers-by. In addition to Toronto, the bag monsters will be visiting Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Whistler, Victoria, Edmonton, and Petit-Champlain on April 16th.


Why does LUSH want to trash plastic bags? Canadians use approximately 9-15 billion petroleum-based shopping bags each year and they seem to be everywhere—they litter our streets, they harm the environment, and they kill wildlife. While plastic bags get used for less than an hour, they can take up to 1,000 years to break down in the environment.

LUSH is proud of its company policy against plastic carrier bags and this Earth Day we want to see local mayors, other retailers, and our customers support a campaign to get them out of our cities. Starting April 16th customers can come into any of our 39 stores to find out more information and sign a petition to the mayor, urging them to ban plastic bags and promote the only truly sustainable alternative—reusable canvas tote bags. A national petition will also go live on www.lush.ca for customers who want to take part but do not live close to a LUSH store.

Similar initiatives have been successful around the world. Last year San Francisco banned plastic bags from all supermarkets and pharmacies, while the Irish government introduced a plastic bag tax that has slashed consumption by over 90%. China, Paris, Great Britain, Australia, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan, and others have all banned or are moving towards reducing the use of plastic bags.

Campaigning against plastic bags is a natural extension of LUSH’s work in leading retailers to tackle waste. Over 50 percent of LUSH products are sold to the customer ‘naked’, with no packaging at all, and just this month the company has become the first major cosmetics retailer to switch over to 100% recycled plastic bottles and containers.

“While single-use plastic bags are given away to customers for free, it’s always the environment that pays the true cost of our disposal culture,” says Mark Wolverton, CEO of Lush North America. “The two things people should take when shopping are their wallets and their reusable tote bag. Tote bags can be sturdy, stylish, and last longer than most relationships.”

Notes to the editor:

• LUSH recently introduced a fair trade, cotton canvas reusable bag. This 100% cotton canvas bag is made by socially disadvantaged women in India using natural textiles.
• While LUSH has never used plastic carrier bags, as part of this Earth Day initiative LUSH will be replacing its remaining small plastic bags used to package individual pieces of product with 100% recycled paper bags by July.
• LUSH products are handmade in Canada using fresh fruit and vegetables and the finest essential oils. Our products are:
  100% vegetarian
  74% vegan
  65% preservative-free
  58% free of wasteful packaging

No animal testing policy on products or ingredients
Support Fair Trade programs and small farms to supply raw materials