Asda bans plastic bags from all online orders

ASDA will no longer offer plastic carrier bags with online grocery orders.

Starting next month the retailer will be the first supermarket to eliminate singleuse carrier bags from its online operations.

The exception is with fresh meat and fish, which will still need to be bagged for health and safety reasons.

The move will mean 85million plastic bags – amounting to 500 tons– will no longer be produced and used each year.

Asda will remove the option to have a ‘bagged’ delivery on all grocery home shopping and ‘click and collect’ orders nationwide from July 31. Delivered goods will arrive in a crate, and will be unloaded by the customer, or by the courier if requested.

The move will answer critics of online shopping who have complained that deliveries use an excessive amount of plastic – with in some cases just one item being packed in a carrier bag.

The Daily Mail has campaigned against single- use plastic. Our successful campaign for a 5p charge on the carrier bags led to a dramatic 83 per cent reduction in the number handed out every year.

Rather than charging per bag, most big supermarkets charge a flat fee of 40p for bagged deliveries, as around eight are typically used in a bagless shop. Asda said it had a successful trial period in the South West and from its Dartford Home Shopping Centre.

It stopped offering single-use plastic bags in its stores in 2018 and combined with the latest measure, it means in total Asda will now be producing 375million fewer every year.

Simon Gregg, vice president of Asda’s online grocery divison, said: ‘We’re working hard to reduce avoidable plastic wherever we can