Lush Protest Packaging in the Nude

Leading international high street retailer Lush have gone onto the streets in the UK stripping off to protest against unnecessary packaging of products, the UK nude protest is part of the stores worldwide campaign in 55 cities. Staff from Lush stores around the UK wore only a white apron with the words "Ask Me Why I'm Naked" emblazoned across their fronts covering their most intimate parts.

Lush is one of the few companies that have extensive environmental merits far beyond its competitors. The majority of their products come unpackaged, those that do are minimal and only used if absolutely necessary. All their ingredients are 100% natural and sourced in the country they are produced. Their products are never tested on animals.

Lush co founder Mark Constantine recently presented a Channel 4 documentary leading the public on a revolutionary insight into the consumer power over packaging, the effects, and cost packaging has on our pockets and the environment. You can watch the documentary on You Tube. (Part 1, 2, 3)

On 16th January 2006 Lush was taken to court in the UK by the Environment Agency. The offence was a technical one of not registering under The Packaging Waste Regulations 1997. This action to bring one of the most environmentally friendly companies in the UK on a technicality was not well received by the public.

There have been 3400 new pieces of legislation on average each year for the last 5 years. Lush started in 1995 and the new law came in during 1997 however Lush did not need to register under the Packaging Waste Regulations until the rules were changes in 2000 and to make it even more difficult the Environment Agency only put the rules on their website in 2005. Even allowing for this Lush has always recycled as well as offering packaging free alternatives to your every day products.

As soon as Lush were informed about the regulations they complied and attempted to make good any fees or charges that we had not paid. They say attempted because the Environment Agency tried to stop them so they could prosecute even though Kevin Parsons, Senior Environmental Officer, South West Region said ‘I agree Lush has been open and honest and that the environment has not suffered as a result of their action’.

He also said ‘It is very difficult for local officers as the scope for discretion is extremely limited. It causes us great difficulty in cases such as Lush as it is fully accepted that Lush is a company recycling on a very comprehensive basis.’

The magistrates took some time to discuss matters amongst themselves. They asked when the Regulations first came in as opposed to when the company first registered. The Lush barrister pointed out that there was no liability until the year 2000, which was when the limit came down from £5m to £2m. He also noted that there were two further small points that he had been asked to put forward to the magistrates. The first was to make clear explicitly the methods of recycling had been carried out since well before the year 2000. Secondly, that the Regulations had been placed on the Environment Agency’s website during the course of the last year and not before.

The magistrates retired for all of 15 minutes. They then said that the offences were ‘at the lower end of the scale’ and ‘having taken the mitigation into account’ that the compensation was the penalty.

It's a shame that genuine companies with positive attitudes towards making a beneficial difference to the environment are prosecuted over a technicality where those that flout the law are not brought before the courts.