LUSH GREEN HUB ECO REPORT
Lush’s black pots and labels are granulated in its refurbished granulator to make PP flakes, which are sent off to be made into more pots
granulator plus water tank has been installed to turn the broken moulds and offcuts into high-value washed and dried PET flakes.
Meanwhile, the jazzed-up granny granulator grinds PP coming in via Lush’s Bring it Back scheme. Launched in 2021, Bring it Back encourages customers to bring any piece of plastic packaging back to stores to get 50p per item off their shop. It replaced Lush’s previous returns scheme, which gave shoppers a free fresh face mask for five black pots returned.
The granulated PP flakes are sent to a supplier who turns it into a plastic nurdle, before being sent to an injection moulder who transforms it back into black pots. The PET sheets likewise come back in a recycled reel for reuse. The refurbishment of the original granulator from the old Green Hub, plus the purchase of the new granulator, means Lush can process 86% more PP and PET plastic annually, and ensure that no virgin plastic is used.
As Flinter noted: “67% of our products are ‘naked’, which means they don’t have packaging. However, they need a mould to make the product itself.” Individual moulds are cut from sheets of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and sent across the road to manufacturing to make bath ballistics and other ‘naked’ products. Because the moulds are hand-pressed, they can be used two to three times before they start to crack, “so it’s imperative that every single one that’s used is saved and brought to the green hub, so I can recycle it with the team”, added Flinter. “Also, when they’re cutting and making the moulds, it’s really important that we capture all the offcuts, so they can also be turned.” Previously, moulds and the Green Hub had been a 25-minute drive away from one another. Flinter explained that bringing the two steps under the one roof cut out lorry emissions, with a chargeable electric forklift now used for lifting and shifting instead. With the majority of Lush’s plastic for recycling being from moulds, a new
cosmeticsbusiness.com
WHAT TO DO WITH WATER? Another major change has been the introduction of the company’s dissolved
air flotation, or DAF, water treatment unit at the Green Hub, which can process 500 tonnes of dirty water each year, removing the need for water to be transported off site to be cleaned. Despite containing mainly natural and organic ingredients, because of the large concentrations, Lush’s wastewater is too contaminated to send straight to the sewers and must be processed. Via a process of injecting air and chemicals, solids and most of the colour rise to the surface to be scraped off and sent for composting, leaving much cleaner wastewater that can be reused, or sent straight to the sewer. In the Green Hub, Lush captures water from the laundry, its washers – including intermediate bulk container (IBC) and barrel washers, which sluice out the barrels containing raw materials – and the output from the granulator.
By taking on the accountability for its wastewater, Lush is saving £30,000 per year and drastically reducing transport emissions as the treatment works where its clean water now goes is just half a mile down the road.
Meanwhile, £87,000 has been invested in Lush’s new laundry machines as part of the Hub. By bringing the processing of its 300 bags of Lush Spa laundry per month in-house, the company ensures control of variables like water temperature, time spent in cycle, washing detergents used and energy used to power the operation. Deliveries of laundry are sent with product deliveries to stores to save on transport emissions
WE ASK THE EXPERT
Mark Constantine, Lush CEO and co-founder What inspired Lush to open the Green Hub? It begins with my brother-in-law, who runs a tip. He used to run four or five and he liked to bring in a picture of the recycling truck going into
his tip – and recycling should not be going to the tip! I’ve popped that [picture] on my mantelpiece for the last 20 years or so. And I
would still carry on with my recycling with my passion and my attitude, because I’m not going to be put off by him telling me it’s not being recycled. But, after that, I constantly had a problem with any recycling issues and I kept asking questions, ‘what’s the percentage of recycling for this? What’s the percentage for that?’ And it’s [only] 8%. I just don’t like to be taken for a dupe. I don’t like being manipulated. As for the Green Hub, when I walk along one of the bays in Poole Harbour, I can smell in the water a material that I know is a perfumery material. It’s actually coming from laundry detergent – the molecules are so small they’re not being picked up in filters. But am I worried that might be one of our materials in the water? When I first smelt it, yes, I was! And I want to be reassured that it is not. Even if it’s from someone else [a processor] who promised to deal with the water properly and then didn’t.
June 2023 21
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
