Morrisons has become the first supermarket chain to commit to ending the sale of plastic carrier bags.
Customers will instead be able to purchase paper bags for 30p or reusable ones made from jute, cotton and other materials for up to £2.50.
Like most retailers, Morrisons has already stopped selling thin plastic bags but is going a stage further by removing so-called “bags for life”.
The Times revealed in 2018 that supermarkets were creating more plastic waste by switching from thin bags to bags for life because they contain up to four times as much plastic. A 5p charge for thin plastic bags was introduced in England in 2015.
Supermarkets sold about 1.6 billion bags for life in 2019, 4.5 per cent more than the previous year and equivalent to 57 per UK household, according to a survey by the Environmental Investigation Agency and Greenpeace.
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Morrisons, which has 497 stores and sells more than 1.9 million bags for life a week, said it would begin removing them from branches in Scotland this month. It will stop selling them in England and Wales over the next year.
It said the decision, which follows a trial in eight stores, would save 3,200 tonnes of plastic per year.
Morrisons said its paper bags were reusable and tear resistant, could hold up to 16kg and, according to an assessment by the University of Sheffield, had been shown to have a lower carbon footprint than its plastic bags for life.
However, previous research has raised questions about whether paper bags are more environmentally friendly. Paper bags are more easily recycled but they tend to be less durable than plastic and may be reused less often.
Paper production may require much more energy than plastic manufacturing and paper weighs more, meaning more energy is needed to transport it.
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Asda said it would continue offering plastic bags for life partly because of “concerns around emissions related to the paper bag production process”.
David Potts, chief executive of Morrisons, said: “Removing all plastic bags is a significant milestone in our sustainability programme.”
Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet, which campaigns against plastic, said: “We urgently need a global treaty on plastics . . . Let more supermarkets please follow Morrisons’ excellent lead.”
Waitrose said it was trialling the removal of its 10p plastic bags in a small number of shops. Co-op said it was considering options for replacing bags for life, while Sainsbury’s said it charged 20p for bags for life to encourage people to reuse them.
