Asda is to stop using carrier bags with online grocery orders.

From this Friday customers will no longer be given the option of having their shopping pre-bagged using single use carriers.

In 2019 the supermarket, which has branches across Kent, stopped providing carrier bags with online orders and instead customers were asked to bring their own reusable bags to the door to collect their shopping or ferry items into their home individually.

But when the pandemic hit, Asda reintroduced the option to online grocery orders and shoppers could ask to have their shopping gathered together and bagged when their order was prepared for an additional 40p.

At the height of the coronavirus outbreak, as thousands opted for online delivery or click and collect slots, Asda said the move back to carrier bags helped with contact-free delivery particularly for those who were shielding.

In an email to customers last night Asda confirmed it would be once again removing the option at checkout - but fresh produce, meat and poultry will continue to be put into bags for food safety reasons.

The email reads: "Now things are getting back to normal we'll be returning to our previous policy. This mean you'll no longer see the option to add carrier bags for online orders."

It follows a move by Tesco earlier this month which said it was abandoning both the use of plastic carrier bags and the tray liners it had been using with its online shopping orders.

Asda's new instructions, included in the email, advise shoppers to have their own bags or boxes ready at the doorstep to unload their order when it arrives.

Any customer, however, who is either still shielding or self-isolating at home because of Covid or who finds packing their own bags a struggle is advised to use the 'delivery notes' section of their order to notify the driver and if bags or boxes are left at the door the delivery team will transfer the food on their behalf.

The removal of carrier bags is the second plastic packaging announcement Asda has made this week.

The company, which says it is 'working hard to reduce the use of plastics wherever we can' announced on social media channels at the start of the week that as part of an 'ongoing commitment to use less and recycle more' it was launching new packaging across its chicken range moving away from plastic trays in favour of pouches.

To read more about the work Asda is doing to combat the use of plastics visit its Better Planet page here.

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