Asda to axe 5p plastic bags

The supermarket says it will phase out single-use plastic bags by the end of the year, and customers who don't bring their own bags will instead have to buy a 9p bag for life. Bags for life are made of much stronger plastic to ensure they last longer, and are usually replaced free of charge if they break.

Tesco and Sainsbury's have already scrapped single-use plastic bags, and Morrisons has trialled not offering them in some stores and will begin phasing them out from all stores in March.

See our 13 ways to use less plastic AND save cash blog for more on environmentally-friendly MoneySaving.

What else is Asda doing?

Asda's chief executive Roger Burnley wrote a blog yesterday about a number of other ways the store will cut plastic use. These include:

• Changing polystyrene pizza bases to cardboard.

• Switching the 2.4 million plastic straws used in its cafes each year to paper.

• Swapping coloured drinks bottles to clear plastic so 500 more tonnes of plastic can be recycled.

• Launching a 'zero profit' reusable coffee cup for customers to help eliminate single-use coffee cups from shops and cafes by the end of 2019.