MORRISONS is ditching plastic packaging from most cucumbers to help with the war on waste.

The supermarket claims that the move will prevent 16 million plastic sleeves being used each year.

1 The supermarket says the move will save 16 million plastic sleeves from waste each year

The plastic-free cucumbers will be available between March and October when they are sourced from British growers.

From November to February, when Morrisons imports its cucumbers from Spain, the Canary Islands and Greece, it needs to use plastic covers to help keep the veg fresh.

Cucumbers sold in half sizes will also be wrapped in plastic, as otherwise they would see a "dramatic reduction in shelf life".

The move was praised by plastic campaigners but they criticised the supermarket for not taking the policy further.

Sian Sutherland, A Plastic Planet co-founder, said: "We applaud Morrisons for taking the initiative in reducing their plastic packaging and blazing a trail for other supermarkets to follow, but why stop there?

"It is estimated that this move will save around 16 million plastic sleeves being used every year, but imagine the impact if this was rolled out across other products."

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It follows the news last week that Iceland will stop selling chewing gum contain plastic.

While Morrisons has also promised to reward shoppers with loyalty points if they use plastic containers when buying meat and fish.

Last month, we revealed that Lidl was named the worst supermarket for recyclable packaging by Which?.

What are supermarkets doing about plastic and waste Morrisons customers who bring their own containers for meat will get loyaly points

Morrisons is also trialling testing a plastic bottle return vending machines in some stores

Asda has promised to replace polystyrene boards in fresh pizza boxes with cardboard

M&S is replacing plastic cutlery with wood

Waitrose has promised to stop using black plastic trays for fruit, vegetables, meat and fish

Aldi, Asda, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose have pledged that 100 per cent of plastic packaging will be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025

Iceland has not signed up but has promised to remove plastic packaging from own-label range by 2023 and replace all black plastic ready-meal trays with paper-based or aluminium ones by the end of this year

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