Not technology-related but I actually had a pleasant experience while being dragged into a cosmetics shop yesterday. I tend to get turned off by the overpowering smelly stuff and fake tans of the staff, but this particular shop (a branch of Lush) had something special – popcorn!
Alas, it wasn’t for eating but rather for packaging. Yes, Lush have given up using shredded paper, already an improvement on styrofoam, and since summer 2007 (got my finger on the pulse as always!) have been using popcorn to protect their bath bombs, blocks of shampoo, etc.
The slightly in-your-face salesperson reeled off the benefits for me:
- Easily compostable (but then so is paper).
- 60% lighter than previous packaging so more efficient to transport.
- They pop the corn at their distribution centres so just the smaller kernels are shipped in. Again, more efficient to transport.
- Previously, products were wrapped in plastic to protect against ink marks from the paper but now no plastic is needed.
The downside is that they have to make it clear both the product AND the packaging are not edible. Another is that more food is being produced for packaging. Add that to the trend of food production for fuel and it puts more pressure on limited resources. On balance, I imagine the overall effect is positive but it would be interesting to see some expert analysis.
Still, it’s great to see innovation and originality, although apparently not as original as I first thought. A Dutch company tried this back in 1990 and there are even anecdotes that popcorn was used in World War II to protect packages parachuted to recipients on the ground.
Another reminder that history has a lot to teach us about thinking outside the box.
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