Lush responds, for what it's worth

The letter-writing continues. After mentioning Lush solid shampoo and deodorant bars in my post two weeks ago, I received several comments from readers who had mail ordered Lush products hoping to avoid plastic packaging, only to find that the products that are sold "naked" in the store are packaged in all kinds of plastic when shipped through the mail.

So I wrote to Lush. I'm not going to reprint my actual email because I'm embarrassed to admit that it wasn't very nice. I must have been in a crappy mood when I wrote it, and rereading it tonight, I realize it's pretty confrontational, which is not the best approach when we want someone to make a change for us. Flies and honey and all that. Nevertheless, the response I got back was very polite. And while I still don't agree with all their packaging choices, I'm happy that they've obviously thought about the issue a lot and are working to get better.

Here's the full response from Lush. Take from it what you will. If you want them to make changes faster, email Amanda (adhalla@lush.com) and let her know. And don't forget that packaging is not the only issue with Lush products. Many of them also contain irritating synthetics like SLS. In my letter, I only addressed packaging concerns. Also, please read my note below regarding the "biodegradable plastic" that Amanda mentions.

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 20:11:36 -0700
From: "Amanda Dhalla" (adhalla@lush.com)
To: beth [at] fakeplasticfish [dot] com

Hi Beth,

Thank you so much for your email and for highlighting an issue near and dear to our hearts.

I’m sure you understand that to ensure that our fragile products arrive at customers’ homes in good condition we must use wrapping materials to protect them against damage. Some of our packages travel many miles and must be able to withstand lots of bumps as both Canada and the US are vast countries.

Over the last few years, we have made many positive changes in the types of materials that we use for packaging. For example:

We use cardboard boxes made from recycled materials and wood excelsior (wood shavings) to protect our products during shipment. Wood excelsior is 100% biodegradable and completely safe.

We use TDPA™ biodegradable plastic bags to protect our bath bombs during shipment. Our bags start degrading after 18 months while regular plastic bags take about 25 years to break down.

[Beth's note: TDPA™ biodegradable plastic bags are similar to the D2W bags that I wrote about in January. They are petroleum-based bags with a chemical (heavy metal) additive which helps them break down. They bring with them many of the same problems of conventional plastics. The only difference is that they will break down under the right conditions.

Also, I don't know where she gets the idea that traditional plastic bags take 25 years to break down. As far as we know, they break down into smaller and smaller plastic particles, but the actual polymers don't break down.]

Our packing tape is recyclable, tamperproof, tamper-evident, and is stronger per square inch than polypropylene.

Our gifts are wrapped with recycled paper and protected using biofoam/envirofill packing peanuts, which are 100% biodegradable.

From this month, we’re rolling out a new clear plastic bottle made with 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) for our shampoos, conditioners and shower gels, and by this fall all of our black pots will be made with 100% post-consumer recycled plastic too.

This is not to say that we don’t have lots of room for improvement as we do still package some of our products in regular plastic before shipping. However, we are continuing to source more environmentally friendly alternatives such as biodegradable bags and containers to replace the plastic. As you can understand, this process does take some time, but we hope to have moved away from regular plastic completely by the end of 2008.

If you have any suggestions for alternative packaging that you feel would help LUSH Direct (online and phones) in our efforts to become more environmentally friendly, we would be extremely interested in hearing more about them.

Thanks once again for your open and honest feedback, and for keeping us honest.

Warm regards,

Amanda

--------------------------------------------------
Amanda Dhalla
Web Operations Manager – LUSH Canada
Tel: 604.638.5612
Cell: 604.603.1239
Fax: 604.638.3649
http://www.lush.ca

I also notice that Amanda works for the Canadian branch of the company, so I don't know if the packaging policies she mentions are the same in the U.S. But really, how environmentally-friendly is it to mail-order personal care products and spend the associated fuel when you can get them locally? Read my March 24 post as well as the comments for alternatives to Lush solid shampoo bars and deodorants. The baking soda is still doing the trick for me!
 

 

Update 3: Soap and Shampoo and Deodorant, oh my!

One of the best ways for us to eliminate unnecessary plastic is to eliminate the water. No water = no plastic bottle. The easiest step in that department is to switch from liquid hand soap and bath gels to solid bar soaps. But there are other products that many folks don't realize come in solid form, like shampoo, so here's an update on my experiences with solid soaps, shampoo bars, and even plastic-free deodorant.

SOAPS:

Plastic-free soap bars are hard to find in mainstream grocery and drugstores, I will admit. Even Ivory comes packaged in plastic wrap these days. But natural stores like Whole Foods are chock full of castile soaps wrapped in little to no paper. Dr. Bronner's is a good choice for many. Right now, I'm enjoying two different solid soaps:

Dessert Essence lemongrass calendula soaps that I found, believe it or not, on sale at Grocery Outlet for a buck a piece and are packaged with just one strip of paper.

Iyoba Body Essentials handmade soaps that I buy directly from her stall at the Berkeley Flea Market on the weekends. I love the fact that the soaps are handmade right here in the East Bay and that I am supporting my local community. And they smell great. Unfortunately, the kitties think the oatmeal soap is food, so we can't keep that particular one within reach of little paws.

The thing I have noticed about natural castile soaps is that they do tend to dissolve fast if you let them sit in water. You need a good soap dish with holes to let the water drain. Or a bowl of little stones, which is what I use. Or a bowl with a strategically shaped and placed seashell, which is what Axelle uses. Or a handmade soap drainer like this one made by Cat at It's A Green Green Green Green World.

SOLID SHAMPOOS:

I've tried three different solid shampoo bars to date:

Lush Re-Incarnate Shampoo Bar comes with zero packaging if you buy it directly from a Lush Store. Through the mail, they wrap it in paper for you. (Correction: Per comments below, sometimes they wrap it up in plastic. Not good. Maybe you have to specify no plastic when you order. *Sigh*) As I've explained before in my original post about Lush, when you shop at the store, you buy the product by weight and it's cut to order from a big block. Lush shampoo bars are a great from a packaging standpoint. But the ingredients in the bar itself are questionable. This shampoo contains Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLS), a detergent which can be irritating to some people. According to their web site, Lush has developed some SLS-free shampoo bars, but I haven't tried them. My main objection to the Re-Incarnate shampoo was the smell. I just didn't care for it. And that's really my main objection to Lush products in general. Most of them are very strong-smelling. In fact, I kind of get a headache when I walk into the store from all the strong fragrances (albeit from natural sources) bumping up against one another. Your mileage may vary.

Burt's Bees Rosemary Mint shampoo bar, on the other hand, smells great to me. And it comes in a cardboard box with zero plastic. But I find it a little drying for my hair. Plus, the company's now owned by Clorox, and I'm not sure I want to continue to support them. On the other hand, since the company's now owned by a big corporation, their products may become easier to find. Burt's Bees may be the one shampoo bar that folks in mainstream or more rural areas can get from a local store, and that would not be a bad thing.

J.R. Liggett's Old Fashioned shampoo bar is the one I'm using right now. It has the mildest fragrance of the three. It comes wrapped in paper with a biodegradable corn plastic inner lining. Okay, but here's the thing. Read the ingredients: Olive oil, coconut oil, caster oil, fresh pure New Hampshire spring water, sodium hydroxide [aka lye], Rosemary-Lavender-Cedarwood and other essential oils for fragrance. My question: how is this any different from the natural soap I've been using on my body???

Why am I spending extra money for a bar labeled "shampoo" when perhaps I could just be using the same olive oil-based soaps on my hair that I use on the rest of me? Iyoba's soaps are made from olive and coconut oils. The main difference I can see is that instead of pure New Hampshire spring water, she probably uses Oakland's finest. Not a problem.

So, when these shampoo bars are used up, I'm either switching to soap OR baking soda. Colin Beavan, the No Impact Man, cleaned his hair with baking soda for a year. And there are all kinds of instructions online for "no-poo" hair cleaning and a whole no-poo community using baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Life Less Plastic is already doing the cider conditioner portion of the no-poo procedure. We'll see. I already use baking soda for a lot of other things. Including the next item on this list.

But before that, I just want to mention one more thing. Conditioner. Remember that homemade solid hand lotion I made a few months ago? Well, a tiny bit of that run through my hair after showering, and I'm tangle-free and good to go. Really.

DEODORANT:

I'd been using a Lush Aromarant container-free deodorant block since August and for the most part it worked just fine. But it's expensive. And after reading that Colin Beavan was also using baking soda as deodorant, I swore I'd try it when this bar ran out.

Well, the bar is almost gone, but not quite. I was scared to switch to baking soda without having some deodorant bar left as a backup. Just in case. Because I can get pretty funky sometimes, and I was just not at all sure that plain baking soda was going to do the trick.

But a few days ago, I had an idea: what if I added a few drops of tea tree oil to the baking soda, just for insurance? Tea tree oil is an antibacterial. And bacteria are what cause body odor. So here's my recipe: Add few drops of tea tree oil to a jar (in my case, a tea tin) of baking soda. Shake well. Apply with a fuzzy powder puff (which I already had.) And guess what:

No odor!

And guess what else:

No wetness either!

Huh? How can that be? I don't know, but my pits are not only odor-free; they're also dry. I've never used antiperspirants because of the nasty ingredients in them. So I just live with sweat-stains under my arms occasionally. Maybe this is a fluke and the sweat will return. Or maybe I'm not drinking enough water. Any ideas?

P.S. You should see me secretly sniffing my pits all day when I think no one's looking, just to make sure. Am I paranoid about B.O. or what? Another victim of advertising perhaps?
 

 

Store/Product Report: Lush (Some more good news)

03/25/2008 UPDATE: Warning to those who would order Lush products through the mail. I have had several reports from readers who ordered what they thought would be naked chunks of shampoo or deodorant, only to have them arrive wrapped up in a ton of plastic. So either be very specific in your ordering instructions that you don't want any plastic packaging, or don't order from Lush. Reading the comments on my updated 03/24/08 blog post might be helpful to you.

When you walk into a Lush Cosmetics store, (there is one at 240 Powell Street in San Francisco, as well as locations throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world) you are greeted not by rows and rows of products packaged in plastic (as you are when you enter The Body Shop, for example), but by big unwrapped chunks of solid soap as well as shampoo, deodorant, bubble bath, and massage oil. That's right, big solid chunks of these things! They are sold by weight. You tell the staff how much you want, and they cut off a piece, weigh it, and wrap it in paper for you. I tried 4 products which have been working great for me for the past 2 weeks:

Lush Bohemian Soap smells like lemon, the fruit, not the furniture polish. I find it really refreshing in the morning. And if you don't like that smell, there are about 20 more kinds of soap to choose from.

Lush does sell some products in plastic containers, including shaving creams. While I was assured by the salesperson assisting me that they are recyclable, I was not about to add more plastic to the waste-stream, recyclable or not. (In fact, much of the plastic we think is reyclable does not actually get recycled. More on that later.) So I asked her what Lush product she would use if she had to shave her legs with something other than shaving cream. She recommended the Emporer of Icecream Buttercream cleanser, as it's the most moisturizing soap. And in fact, it works. It makes my legs and other areas slippery enough to shave without wounding myself. It also smells awesome, lightly scented with vanilla and orange blosson honey. Unfortunately, I can't find this one on the web site. Perhaps it's only sold in stores. Oh, and by the way, the plastic container in the photo did not come from Lush. I made it from pieces of that Chinese food container from 2 weeks ago.

The Re-Incarnate Shampoo bar seems to work just as well as liquid shampoo, once you get over the initial weirdness of rubbing a bar of soap on your head. It lathers up really well and rinses out well too. I'm not crazy about this particular scent which reminds me of Chinese 5 spice powder (although, looking at the list of ingredients, I can't tell what would cause that particular smell for me). But others may love it. And there are about 12 other shampoo bars to choose from.

And finally, the Aromarant deodorant bar is the wonder product for me. I was skeptical about whether it would really work, but after using it for 2 weeks with no odor and no irritation, I am sold. Lush warns that you should not keep these deodorant bars in the bathroom because of the steam. They work best if kept dry and used on dry underarms. I've been keeping it in my underwear drawer, where it does double-duty making my underthings smell nice. As with the other products, if you don't like this scent, there are others to choose from.

Unfortunately, if you don't like any scented products, you are kind of out of luck with Lush. Everything is made with essential oils and contains some scent, although some are stronger than others.

After my visit to Lush, I spoke with Jennifer Graybeal who handles press inquiries for Lush. I asked her about the products that are packaged in plastic containers. She said that Lush is currently looking into more biodegradable options and is very serious about being environmentally responsible. However, at the moment, there is no non-plastic alternative for some of the products.

I also asked her how the bars are packaged for mail-order shipping. I would hate to order a product that comes without plastic in the store only to find plastic packaging in the box. She told me the only packaging they use is old paper copies of the Lush Times, and that they are looking into even better alternatives, including possibly using actual popcorn to pad the products for shipping.

The main drawback I can see to these products is that they are pricey. I purchased 1/4 pound of each item, and the average price was about $8.00 per bar. The salesperson at the store told me that the Lush bars last longer than other brands. That remains to be seen. But to me, the price is worth it for products that will not contribute to the plastic problem.