If David Attenborough has taught us anything over the years, it's we need to be kinder to the environment - single-use plastics are incredibly damaging to our oceans and to animals. With this in mind, a lot of companies are on a mission to reduce their carbon footprint, with one way being to scrap single-use carrier bags.
But with many of the 'bags for life' still being damaging to the environment when binned, Co-op has come up with a solution to end single-use carriers once and for all - compostable bags.
Co-op is introducing compostable carriers throughout 230 of their Scotland stores - all part of an innovative long-term plan that will culminate with the company having scrapped single-use carriers from 1,400 stores across the UK.
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The new compostable bags are being introduced into the 1,400 stores because they're located in areas where the council currently provides homes with food waste bins - plus as the carriers are compostable, they're ideal to use as waste bags once people are done with them.
The roll out follows a successful live-testing in 22 stores in Greater Manchester and is part of Co-op's 'The Future of Food - a recipe for sustainability' campaign.
This isn't the only step the supermarket brand is taking to be more environmentally friendly - it's also promising to remove all black and dark plastic packaging from all their own brand products all by 2020, including those pesky ready meal trays that can't be recycled .
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Along with this, Co-op has made the promise to use at least 50 percent recycled plastic in its bottles, pots, punnets and trays by 2021.
Jo Whitfield, Retail Chief Executive at Co-op said: "The price of food wrapped in plastic has become too much to swallow and, from today, the Co-op will phase out any packaging which cannot be reused.
"The first step to remove single-use plastic will be to launch compostable carrier bags in our stores. They are a simple but ingenious way to provide an environmentally-friendly alternative to plastic shopping bags."
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But Co-op isn't stopping there. Oh no, these plans go further - having stated that it already uses 100 percent renewable energy for its stores, the wheels are in motion for the company to scrap all single-use plastic from its stores by 2023.
The compostable bags will be a first for the UK and mean the company is going to save 339 tonnes of plastic each year.
Featured Image Credit: Co-opTopics: Food, UK News, trash isles