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Morrisons & Tesco Have Agreed To Stop Using 5p Plastic Bags By The End Of 2018

Morrisons & Tesco Have Agreed To Stop Using 5p Plastic Bags By The End Of 2018

Morrisons has joined Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, becoming the latest supermarket to commit to scrapping single-use plastic bags.

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

Morrisons has joined Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury's in agreeing to end their sale of single use plastic bags.

We all known there is a whole load of plastic in the sea - here at LADbible, our Trash Isles campaign is aimed at raising awareness of that very fact and lobbying governments to reduce the impact of plastic waste.

But the only way we're going to get anywhere is if everyone - from those in power right down to you and I - agrees to change their habits and how they use plastic in their daily lives.

Morrisons' pledge to stop selling 5p single-use shopping bags by the end of the year is a great step along the road.

Morrisons will be phasing out 5p plastic bags from March.
PA

The supermarket released a statement that said: "We are listening to customers and they're telling us they want to reduce the amount of plastic getting out into the environment.

"We've already seen a big reduction in plastic bag usage since the 5p charge was introduced,"

"We trialled not offering plastic bags in a handful of stores and customers responded positively by using reusable bags.

"The ambition behind introducing a charge on single-use carrier bags was to reduce their usage and we now feel the time is right to stop offering them altogether."

The phasing out process will begin in March and they will be free from single use bags by the end of 2018.

Supermarket plastic bags will soon be a thing of the past.
PA

This move follows the decision of Asda, who announced this week that they will no longer use 5p bags. Other supermarkets have already done away with them - Sainsbury's in 2015, when the 5p charge was introduced, and Tesco in August 2017.

Customers to all of the supermarkets will still be able to by a longer lasting carrier bag if they haven't brought their own.

Despite seeing this as a good move, some activists don't think that these new measures go far enough. A spokesperson for Greenpeace UK said: "Plastic bags floating in a blue sea have become the iconic image of the plastic crisis facing our oceans.

"Whether they're swallowed up by whales or tangled around a turtle's shell, they can have a devastating impact on marine life.

"It's good to see Morrisons and other supermarkets are coming up with commitments to phase out this environmental scourge for good. But plastic bags are just one of many types of single-use plastic crowding supermarket shelves.

"Big retailers generate nearly 1m tonnes of plastic packaging a year and much of it can be easily replaced with less harmful materials or phased out altogether."

You can sign the petition to recognise the Trash Isles as a country and help to clean up the oceans here.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: UK News, Pollution, Interesting, shopping bags, Morrisons, Tesco, Asda