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Popcorn packaging
Hilary Osborne on a new green form of packing. But is it edible?
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In the world of cosmetics, packaging is king. Who would buy half the products available if it wasn't for the beautiful bottles and boxes they came wrapped in? Lush has long bucked this trend - selling bath bombs and soaps lose, and putting handcreams and body lotions in plain black tubs. It's not always very glamorous but it is greener.
As well as improving existing containers, so they break down quicker after use, the company has introduced a new innovation to its packaging: popcorn. The popcorn is 60% lighter than the shredded paper it uses now, which means it takes 10% less energy to transport. The energy needed to produce the popcorn is on a par with that used to shred the paper, but the popcorn is cleaner so there is not need to wrap the products being transported - a move that Lush says will save 4.6m bags a year. And once you've unpacked the box you can put the popcorn in your compost bin - if you have one - where it will completely breakdown. If you don't yet have a compost, details are included in the box.
Lush says it works brilliantly as a packaging material - it sent a lightbulb in the post six times and it arrived in one piece every time (a Christmas holiday spent working in a sorting office convinces me that this was quite a good test). And it seems to me to be as close to fun as green packaging usually gets - although trying to resist eating it, despite the soapy smell, could be a trial, although it's one way to get round the composting question.
Popcorn seems like such a great idea, it made me wonder why no-one had thought of it before. Apparently they had - a Dutch computer firm did back in 1990, but it doesn't seem to have widely caught on. Will it this time? And are there other green forms of packaging that we're missing out on?
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