Until now Lush, a British cosmetics company, used shredded paper in the boxes in which it sold soaps, massage bars and other delicate items. As part of its drive to be greener, Lush has come up with a great solution for packaging: instead of using polystyrene chips to keep fragile items intact in the post, the chain is now using an edible and far more biodegradable solution: popcorn!

Popcorn packaging is just another example of how natural materials can replace many supposedly superior man made materials. The popcorn packaging will obviously reduce the amount of paper used by the chain. I would like to see if the popcorn will be grown locally and organically and reused or at least eaten. However, a side effect of this is that transport emissions will also be reduced, since popcorn is 60% lighter than paper.