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New York, NY – Wearing nothing but aprons reading “ASK ME WHY I’M NAKED”, employees of LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics will lead a cheeky protest urging shoppers to go ‘naked’ by purchasing products free of packaging. The brave shop workers will educate passers-by on the devastating environmental impact of packaged goods sold in cosmetic shops, supermarkets, and other retailers

Date:   Wednesday, August 27th
Time:    12 p.m. sharp
Location:   27 stores throughout the U.S.

Why are LUSH employees shedding their clothes to talk about packaging? The environment is one of the biggest global issues we face today. In order to combat climate change and to protect the Earth’s scarce natural resources, shoppers need to take action by avoiding packaged goods. Unnecessary packaging can be found in almost every retailer: loose fruit individually shrink-wrapped or on plastic trays in supermarkets, the prolific use of plastic carrier bags and the mountains of plastic bottles used for cosmetic products are all contributing to the growing environmental crisis.

The statistics make for sobering reading: packaging contributes to 2 percent of overall greenhouse gases and plastic uses 8 percent of the world’s oil resources. With the U.S. consuming 79.6 million tons of packaging each year, over half of which still ends up in landfills, the time to tackle our packaging addiction is now.

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, hennas, 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.

“Packaging is rubbish and for too long we have had to suffer excessive amounts of it,” says LUSH Founder Mark Constantine. “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 buy truly naked products.”

LUSH’s naked campaign is part of a coordinated national effort with similar events happening in 36 cities across the U.S.

Notes to editor:
• In conjunction with the Naked Campaign LUSH has switched all plastic bottles in the store to 100 percent post-consumer waste bottles.
• 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 truckload of Lush’s solid shampoo bars would be enough for 800,000 washes but it would take 15 truckloads of liquid shampoo to do the same job. That means more pollution, and a much bigger carbon footprint.

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