We are all doing our bit to save the planet - and it seems that some major retailers are beginning to get on board too.
Supermarket giant Sainsbury's is the latest major retailer to announce a major change towards reducing the amount of plastic that is used in store.
The retailer will no longer sell own brand lunchbox cartoon juices that come with a plastic straw - removing thousands of tonnes of plastic across UK stores.
They will remove a total of 18.5 million plastic straws that end up in circulation each year, equating to a 6.6 tonne plastic reduction, reports Birmingham Live.
It is hoped that the move can make the popular shop more eco-friendly, with the supermarket pledging to halve its use of plastic packaging by 2025 and become Net Zero in its operations by 2040.
Sainsbury’s follows a raft of popular supermarkets that are working to remove plastic from their produce.
Waitrose recently banned plastic from their magazines, while other supermarkets like Aldi and Asda have stopped offering plastic bags at the fruit and veg section.
Claire Hughes, Director of Product and Innovation at Sainsbury's said: “As we work to reduce, reuse, replace and recycle plastic packaging, we’re committed to trialling and testing innovative new packaging alternatives for our products."
In a statement, Ms Hughes continued: "Removing 18.5 million straws from circulation each year is a huge achievement and brings us closer to our goal.”
She added: “Looking forward, we will continue to work closely with our suppliers, manufacturers, customers and other retailers to reduce the amount of single use plastic across the supply chain, whilst also investing in research and development of materials and technologies. We look forward to listening to feedback from our colleagues and customers about this latest packaging move.”
