LUSH: Join the Regeneration
Published by Josh Banks,
There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now than there has been in the last 800,000 years, making it evident how extreme climate change is.
Numerous companies have realised how unethical they are being and are adapting to improve this. One company who is taking big strides to prevent further damaging the planet is Lush. Lush prides itself on being:
The company was founded by Mark Constantine, a trichologist and Liz Weir, a beauty therapist on 12th November 1995. Trichology is a branch of dermatology that deals with the scientific study of the health of hair and scalp. The world's largest Lush opened on Friday, March 15th in Liverpool.
Lush has ditched conventional packaging and has even said "Packaging is rubbish" as well as "Why recycle when you can get naked?" Obviously, they are not referring to the type of naked we are all thinking of however, Lush has a new found love for making an innuendo out of their innovative packaging.
We are all aware of how damaging packaging is to the environment, which is why Lush has opted for the much more inventive and renewable knot wraps, which are inspired by traditional Japanese furoshiki and has been using them since 2008. Not only do they reduce plastic waste, but they can also be made from plastic and others are vintage, given a new purpose in life, or are made from organic cotton sourced in India.
In addition to this in 2018, Lush sold over 1,000,000 shampoo bars in the UK alone, which means around 3,000,000 plastic bottles were never created. Furthermore, Lush works alongside a not-for-profit group: Eco Interventions in Alentejo, Portugal which is teaching locals how to create native cork forests which aid Lush by providing them with a shampoo bar case that at the end of their lives can be returned to the Earth without leaving a toxic residue.
If you wish to visit the weird, wacky and wonderful world that Lush has to offer I highly recommend that you visit the new store on Church Street, Liverpool or check out the website (https://uk.lush.com/). Lush is renowned for the cutting-edge designs it's products have and the unique selling points its products provide and with a wide, wild and wondrous range of health and beauty products for anything and everything, they clearly live up to this.
Bath bombs are what caused Lush's widespread popularity as every one of every age was infatuated by the beautiful, fragranced bath bombs on offer, which is not only inventive in the way they look but as well as the way they are displayed.
To refer back to our increasing climate crisis; anti-fracking activist Tina Rothery says "penalise production" and "constant placing of responsibility onto individual consumption and waste feels like attacking the problem the wrong way round". Although industries need to focus massively on improving their ethicality, you can always lead the way into the future by setting an example. A way in which I am inspiring to do this is by reading Chris Packham's - No. More. Plastic. ( which I will report back on once I have read it).
One way in which Lush suggests you can be a hero towards Earth is by creating a community garden, as it will provide fresh fruit and veg, bright the community, and bring neighbours together. Aneaka, from Lush's Well-being team, stated: "The idea is to bring people together, creating a community space for the physical but also the mental benefits."
Of course, there are plenty of other reasons for you to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty which I will talk about in another blog post. For now, though I hope you have enjoyed this blog post, and feel somewhat inspired to take action. Tell me something interesting in the comments I'd love to know?
Will post soon - Josh :)