Environment

Tesco is offering online customers home deliveries without plastic bags from this week.

As of Friday shoppers on Tesco.com can choose to have groceries delivered in green, stackable plastic trays, which drivers take away.

Customers who select the no-bags option will be rewarded with extra loyalty card points.

Tesco said the move was a UK supermarket first and was prompted by customers’ concerns about the number of bags used for home deliveries.

"It is part of our community plan and part of our commitment to the environment and work to reduce our carbon footprint," said a Tesco spokeswoman.

"Tesco is all about listening to customers and this is something that they wanted us to do."

The system has been trialled in parts of the country including Horsham in Surrey.

Tesco also tested other ways of delivering goods but the plastic trays worked best, said the spokeswoman.

Tesco.com in the Republic of Ireland has been successfully delivering groceries in this way for over two years, she added.