The Sun has followed its News UK stablemate the Times in the publisher’s drive to ditch single-use plastic wrappings by the middle of next year.

The Sun TV Mag, which comes with the newspaper on Saturdays, will lose its plastic wrapping in both the UK and Irish editions from tomorrow.

News UK said this would remove 350 tonnes of single-use plastic each year from the Saturday issue of the paper alone.

In addition the Sun on Sunday will phase out all its single-use plastic by the end of December, after which compostable film will be used for bagging when necessary.

In June the Times and Sunday Times switched from plastic to a biodegradable wrapping made from potato starch, which can be composted, in a bid to protect copies delivered to subscribers’ homes.

Plastic wrapping on magazine supplements within the Saturday and Sunday Times will start to be replaced by paper early next year, News UK has said.

The publisher added that this would complete its pledge to remove all single-use plastic wrappings on its titles and inner magazines by mid 2020.

The Times Literary Supplement, another News UK title, has also already moved to compostable film wrapping.

News UK retail director Neil Spencer said: “This latest plastics move means News UK is now well on the way to removing 800 tonnes of plastic from the supply chain by 2020.

“We know readers and retailers have responded very positively to these changes on The Times and The Sunday Times and we are glad that The Sun is also now able to phase out its plastic inner polybagging.”

The Guardian’s Saturday edition became the first national title to use biodegradable wrapping in January this year.

The wrapping was rolled out to the Guardian Weekly magazine six months later after it received a “positive response” from readers.