SWINDON shoppers have given the thumbs up to a major supermarket chain’s move to bin single-use plastic from its fruit and veg aisles.

The decision by Sainsbury’s follows the ditching of bakery plastic bags and a pledge to halve the amount of plastic it uses by 2025.

Shoppers will need to take their own or buy its new reusable bags for 30p.

Simon Green, 52, said: “It’s a good thing because plastic is the route of all evil.

"So if we can get rid of that and use recyclable and reusable bags then that’s great.”

Sarah Colebourne, 35, of Middleleaze said: “I like the idea. I’ve been using bags for life for a while so it’s inevitable the way it’s going.

"It’s good to have an option to have a bag unlike Tesco as they have removed all bags completely.

"So I like having that option of an environmental bag and it’s better than no bag at all.”

Royal Wootton Bassett Environmental Group member Jason Cook said: “It’s a really good idea because prior to that Sainsbury’s were one of the worst of the big five stores so that’s why they have reacted.

“Anything you can do to reduce the plastic going into the environment is a great idea because we have so much plastic at the moment and it’s not biodegradable.”

Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe said: “We are absolutely committed to reducing unnecessary plastic packaging in Sainsbury’s stores.

“Our customers expect us to be leading the way on major issues like this, so I am determined to remove and replace plastic packaging where we can and offer alternatives to plastic where packaging is still required to protect a product.”

Sainsbury’s is the second largest supermarket chain in the UK with almost 1,500 stores.

Last year it was reported that 10 of the largest supermarkets were producing over 810,000 tonnes of single-use plastic.

It included more than 1.1 billion single-use bags, 958 million bags for life and 1.2 billion plastic produce bags for fruit and vegetables.

Sainsbury’s reported that it produced 15.4 per cent of single-use plastics on its market last year.

Selected Waitrose stores now have a refill station which customers can use to fill up jars and boxes with pasta, frozen fruit, veg and grains.

This is being trialled in Cheltenham, Abingdon and Wallingford. And the biggest supermarket in the UK, Tesco, removed plastic bags for home delivery in September.