In a bid to collect and recycle 1,000 tonnes a year, the equivalent to 150 million loaf bags, Tesco is trialling a new service.
Currently available in 171 stores, customers can recycle soft plastic regardless of where they bought it.
The new service has begun rolling out its recycling points in the South West of England and Wales with plans to put in all large stores.
These collection points enable Brits to return all of their soft plastic, including cling film, pet food pouches and bread bags.
Once collected, the plastic is sent for recycling where it will be washed, sorted and processed before turned into new packaging.
This will then be used for food, household and beauty products.
Tesco’s Director of Quality, Sarah Bradbury, said: “It is an absolute priority to remove and reduce as much plastic as possible and ensure everything we use is recycled and kept out of the environment.
“Where plastic serves an important purpose such as reducing food waste, these new recycling points make sure that every piece can be easily recycled.
“Trials have shown they are popular with customers, so we believe rolling them out scale will have a real impact.”
The roll-out follows a successful trial in 10 stores where customers loved the new service.
Want to bring a little glamour to your life every day with all the most exciting real-life stories, fashion and even sex tips HOT off the press?
Well, we’ve got you covered with our great new Hot Topics newsletter – it’ll drop straight into your inbox around 7pm and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.
And signing up now means you’ll get a front row seat for our great new series inside the lives of the next generation of Daily Star Page 3 girls.
You can sign up here – you won’t regret it…
Paula Chin, WWF Sustainable Materials Specialist, said: “Plastic pollution is one of the most visible symptoms of the environmental crisis and is devastating our natural world.
“Businesses, governments and households have all got an important part to play in tackling the issue, so it’s encouraging to see Tesco extending their successful soft plastics collection trial across more of their stores, giving their customers even more opportunity to recycle these valuable materials.”
Tesco also scrapped small plastic bags to pack loose fruit, vegetables and bakery items.
Since the launch of the strategy in 2019, the supermarket reduced the size of its annual packaging footprint by 3,480 tonnes.