
Ethical cosmetics shop Lush has stripped off to reduce plastic pollution – and so have the staff.
Lush in Manchester’s Market Street has given all its products a make-under. Today, (January 18), the store reopened as a ‘naked shop’, the first of its kind in the country, having stripped its handmade bath and beauty products of plastic. And to mark the occasion, the staff stripped off to just their aprons.
The company said it wanted to highlight the global environmental crisis posed by plastic packaging by echoing its campaign in 2007 when staff from 55 shops across the UK went naked for the day.
A spokesman for Lush Manchester said:
“Today Lush Manchester lost the pot and went naked, becoming the first UK store to be completely packaging-free! Today the staff wear nothing but aprons to highlight how plastic waste is still a global environmental crisis.”
Shoppers can expect to see old favourites such as solid deodorants, facial cleansers and of course, the ever-popular bath bombs. There will also be ‘ethically-sourced swag’ such as regenerative containers, and colourful Knot-Wraps which will ensure shoppers’ plastic-free goodies will get home safely.
But nude is not new for Lush, a company which has long championed waste-free packaging solutions on the high street.
Product inventor and co-founder Mo Constantine said:
“I began unintentionally making naked products and I’ve gone down that route ever since. My first invention was the shampoo bar in the late eighties. Since then we’ve taken the concept much further.”
While new to the UK, the naked shop concept was initially launched in Milan in 2018, as customers grew more environmentally conscious. And it’s with good reason; the Ellen MacArthur Foundation report estimates that, unless we cut back on plastic waste, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.
Lush co-founder Mark Constantine said:
“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 retailers to cut the wrap.”
For more information visit the Lush website.