Morrisons becomes latest supermarket to ditch 5p carrier bags – and it means forgetful shoppers will have to pay 10p

MORRISONS has become the latest supermarket to scrap single-use carrier bags in a bid to cut down on plastic.

It will start to phase out the bags from its stores in March and will stop selling them completely by the end of the year.

The move means that shoppers will have to pay 10p for a Bag For Life if they forget to bring a bag with them - double the price they'd pay for a normal plastic one.

Morrisons is following its supermarket rivals in ditching carrier bags.

This week Asda announced it was going to stop selling them, as well as pledging to remove 10 per cent of plastic from its Own Brand packaging over the next 12 months.

Tesco scrapped its 5p carriers in August last year, while Sainsbury's stopped selling single use bags when the 5p levy was introduced in 2015.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Theresa May announced a new war on plastic with a 25-year plan to deal with Britain's throwaway culture.

As part of the plan cornershops will be forced to charge customers for 5p bags.

Since the 5p plastic bag tax was introduced in England in October 2015, nine billion fewer bags have been used.

It also helped supermarkets donate more than £66million to good causes.

A spokesman for Morrisons said: "We are listening to customers and they’re telling us they want to reduce the amount of plastic getting out into the environment.

"We’ve already seen a big reduction in plastic bag usage since the 5p charge was introduced.

"The ambition behind introducing a charge on single-use carriers bags was to reduce their usage and we now feel the time is right to stop offering them altogether."

Morrisons originally trialled the move in six of its stores last year.

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