Morrisons is launching 20p paper carrier bags in all stores to reduce plastic waste

The supermarket predicts the move will save an estimated 1,300 tonnes of plastic a year

Morrisons is to sell 20p paper carrier bags in all stores by next month in a bid to reduce plastic waste.

Based on customer uptake during an eight-week trial that took place across eight stores since January, the supermarket predicts the initiative will save an estimated 1,300 tonnes of plastic a year.

Welsh stores will be the first to stock the paper bags next week, followed by English and Scottish branches in May.

The supermarket says the paper bags are made from sustainably managed forests and that they are strong enough to carry groceries weighing up to 16kg.

It also revealed that its standard plastic bags now cost 20p.

Andy Atkinson, group customer and marketing director at Morrisons, says: “We are taking another meaningful step that will remove an estimated 1,300 tonnes of plastic out of the environment each year.

“Our customers have told us that reducing plastic is their number one environmental concern so introducing the paper bag across the nation will provide another way of reducing the plastic in their lives.”

Earlier this year, Morrisons raised the cost of its plastic bags to 15p which led to a 25 per cent reduction in overall bag sales.

The 5p plastic bag levy was introduced in England in October 2015 and all large retailers have been required to introduce the charge. Similar schemes also run in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Figures from the Government at the end of 2018 showed that nearly two billion 5p plastic bags were sold in the last financial year.

This is a stark reduction from 2014, when 7.6 billion carrier bags - the equivalent of 140 per person - were handed out solely by England's seven largest supermarkets.

Morrison’s announcement comes just days after Sainsbury’s was criticised by Greenpeace for failing to reduce the amount of plastic waste it produces.

The environmental charity criticised the UK’s second biggest supermarket after it was found to be “the worst in class” in a 2018 survey of retailer's plastic policies.

However, Sainsbury’s refuted the claims stating that it has “ambitious targets” to reduce plastic from its stores.

“Greenpeace says we have pledged to reduce plastic by 77 tonnes and, in fact, we will reduce plastic by well over 2,400 tonnes in the next 12 months alone,” a Sainsbury’s spokesperson told The Independent.

“For Sainsbury’s branded products, 67 per cent of the plastic that we use is widely recyclable and 100 per cent will be widely recyclable packaging by 2025.

“We have ambitious targets to continue to reduce plastic across our product range."