Iceland to cut out plastic bags in trial

The trial is under way in the supermarket's store in Hackney, London, where instead of plastic bags, customers can choose between 10p lightweight paper bags, stronger paper bags costing 15p and more durable bags costing £1. They will also be given small paper bags for meat products for free. 

At the same time, Iceland will also trial offering the 15p paper bags alongside 15p plastic bags 'for life' in 25 stores across North Wales, Wirral and Cheshire. This additional trial will continue at a further 15 stores in the Manchester area from Saturday 10 August and Iceland says the data will be used to monitor which bags consumers prefer.

Both trials will last six months before a wider roll-out is decided on. It is expected 210,000 fewer plastic bags will be bought during the trials. 

The news comes after Iceland launched new plastic-free banana packaging this week across 20 stores. Earlier this year it had to reintroduce plastic packaging for its bananas after the paper band replacement failed to live up to hopes, while in May, it also scrapped a plastic-free greengrocer trial that was running in Liverpool after a drop in sales.

See our 13 ways to use less plastic AND save cash blog to help do your bit for the environment.