Morrisons has removed one of the most widely-used plastics from all of its own-brand food and drink products.

The supermarket had been using expanded polystyrene on its food counters for meat and fish trays, to package frozen desserts and cakes and as a base for store-made pizzas.

Around 90 million meat trays, fish trays and pizza bases were used in Morrisons last year.

Morrisons is making the move because polystyrene is not recyclable, and says the change could prevent the disposal of at least 600 tonnes of the material every year.

Natasha Cook, packaging manager at Morrisons, said: “Polystyrene is a particularly difficult material to recycle – so we wanted to take it out of our products quickly. “Taking plastic out of the environment remains one of our customers’ most pressing concerns so we continue to remove unnecessary plastic packaging or make it more recyclable.”

Morrisons will introduce new cardboard bases as well as recyclable plastic trays made from recycled plastic bottles. It wants to make all of its own-brand plastic reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.