A newly-opened Tesco supermarket in the village of Somersham, Cambridgeshire, has banned the provision of free plastic bags to customers.
The Tesco Express store, which opened last week in a converted former pub, has agreed to support the village’s retail ban on disposable plastic bags which has been in place since 2008.
Tesco said it would initially remove all plastic bags from checkouts and instead hand out 3,000 hessian bags, sell local branded cloth bags for £1 and its own ‘bags for life’ for 10p.
A spokesman for the UK’s largest retailer added that the store would listen to feedback from shoppers to see “if it is something they want us to continue with”.
Steve Creswell, district councillor for Somersham, said he was pleased Tesco had decided to join the village’s no-plastic-bag scheme.
He commented: “It was a concern because three years ago we went plastic bag-free and although Tesco bags are biodegradable they are still plastic, which goes against the idea of a plastic bag-free zone.”
“They agreed not to provide plastic bags at all as a trial, which I am told they have not done before. I am happy with that and it could be the start of something bigger.”
