Asda is to stop providing single-use plastic carrier bags with its online grocery orders, in a move that will remove around 85 million plastic bags from production each year.
Following a successful trial period in South-West England and from its Dartford Home Shopping Centre, Asda will remove the option to have a bagged delivery service on all home shopping and click and collect orders nationwide from 31st July, resulting in a saving of over 500 tonnes of plastic.
The decision makes Asda the first supermarket to eliminate single-use carrier bags from its operations, having stopped offering single-use bags in its stores in 2018.
In total Asda will now produce 375 million fewer plastic bags each year.
However, for health and safety reason, fresh meat and fish items will still need to placed inside a small plastic flow bag, but Asda will be training staff to keep these to a minimum.
Simon Gregg, Vice President for Online Grocery at Asda, said: “We’re working hard to reduce avoidable plastic wherever we can, because helping to reduce its impact on the environment matters to us, and we know it matters to our customers too.”
“This is a simple change, but will have a significant impact on the amount of plastic we use as a business.”