M&S including stores in Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich scrap plastic bags for life and replaces them with paper carriers

M&S is scrapping plastic carriers in all stores and replacing them with paper bags instead.

A ‘strong and robust’ bag is being introduced to food halls, including those in Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich, and a simpler version to clothing departments, the retailer has announced.

The new paper bags – insists M&S – will have all the benefits of plastic ones but without the same impact on the environment.

The food carriers, it says, are super strong and capable of holding over 15kg inside them - which is the equivalent to more than six four-pint cartons of milk.

Both types of bag are also water resistant thanks a resin applied in the manufacturing process, and should withstand being used 100 times.

And once they have been worn out, the paper bags can be put straight into home recycling bins unlike the plastic bags for life, which in most cases needed to be returned to specific soft plastic recycling collection points.

In April 2021, Morrisons became the first supermarket to remove plastic bags from its shops. In the same month, Co-op also announced that it was removing all plastic bags and bags for life from its convenience stores.

There, the retailer also began the roll-out of 10p green compostable carriers to all Co-op branches so that customers could buy a cheap environmentally-friendly bag which could then be reused for a second time at home in kitchen compost bins.

M&S corporate affairs director, Victoria McKenzie-Gould said the company hoped it would help avoid the ‘mountain’ of plastic bags shoppers often accumulate at home.

She wrote in a blog post: “"For the vast majority who already reuse their own bags, which remains the most sustainable option, not a lot will change.

"But on the odd occasion when we all need to reach for one more bag, we're pleased to be offering a more sustainable option for customers."