Trainers go green as Puma punt shoeboxes

SPORTS goods maker Puma will launch "environmentally friendly" packaging for its trainers next year to reduce its carbon footprint, beating governments to the punch as it kisses old-fashioned shoe boxes goodbye.

Puma said it would roll out the packaging in the second half of 2011 and, by putting its shoes in cardboard frames wrapped in reusable shoe bags, it would save 8,500 tonnes of paper – the weight of 1,400 elephants.