Tesco announced soft plastics recycling at some Somerset stores

The supermarket giant has announced the rollout of soft plastic recycling at 171 stores.

In Somerset, these stores include Burnham-on-Sea, Chard, Glastonbury, Minehead, Shepton Mallet, Taunton and Wells.

This means customers will be able to recycle bread bags, fruit and vegetable packaging, crisp packets, salad bags, baby and pet food pouches and cling film when they do their weekly shop.

Once collected, the soft plastic packaging brought back by customers is then sent for recycling.

The items will be washed, sorted and processed before being turned into new packaging for food, household and beauty products.

Tesco’s director of quality, Sarah Bradbury, said: “It is an absolute priority to remove and reduce as much plastic as possible and ensure everything we use is recycled and kept out of the environment.

“Where plastic serves an important purpose such as reducing food waste, these new recycling points make sure that every piece can be easily recycled.

“Trials have shown they are popular with customers, so we believe rolling them out at scale will have a real impact.”

Most councils don't collect soft plastic from homes for recycling and it often ends up on landfill sites.

The move has been welcomed by environmental charity WWF.

Sustainable materials specialist Paula Chin added: “Plastic pollution is one of the most visible symptoms of the environmental crisis and is devastating our natural world.

“Businesses, governments and households have all got an important part to play in tackling the issue, so it’s encouraging to see Tesco extending their successful soft plastics collection trial across more of their stores, giving their customers even more opportunity to recycle these valuable materials.”