Sainsbury's trials plastic fruit bags ban in Lincoln and Kidlington

Sainsbury's said it wanted to introduce the new bags in all of its shops by September

Plastic bags have been removed for fruit and vegetables and shoppers can instead buy reusable drawstring bags in a trial at two Sainsbury's stores.

Customers at the Kidlington, in Oxfordshire, and Lincoln shops can choose to use their own containers or buy a 30p bag from recycled materials.

The supermarket said it wanted to remove the plastic bags from all of its shops by September.

Rivals are already introducing measures to minimise plastic waste.

Morrisons has started selling fresh produce in paper bags and Tesco has removed all polystyrene from its fish packaging.

Last month Waitrose started a trial removing plastic from flowers and plants and offering more loose fruit and vegetables.

Scott Ward, manager at Sainsbury's Lincoln store, said there was "customer demand" to remove all single-use plastic.

Sainsbury's was rated the worst UK supermarket for its use of plastic, according to a Greenpeace UK survey.

In a November 2018 report by the environmental campaign group Sainsbury's scored the lowest marks out of 10 UK supermarket for reducing single-use plastics and reducing non-recyclable plastics.

Louise Edge, from Greenpeace, said she was pleased Sainsbury's was now trialling the reusable bags.

She added: "But if Sainsbury's wants to move from the bottom of our supermarket league table, it will need to cut much more plastic over the next year - its current plans to reduce plastic by just 1% are frankly unambitious."