Bag printer Supermarkets 'use too many bags for online shopp

Tesco and Sainsbury’s were attacked by consumer watchdogs yesterday for using too many plastic bags decoration on online shopping orders.

They each used 14 separate custom printed bag to deliver 29 items.

Waitrose completed the same order with half the number, Ocado used ten custom plastic bag and Asda nine.

Tesco gave a pack of sausages, a packet of mince and a bottle of Fairy Liquid their own custom bag each, while Sainsbury’s allowed one bag printing for a six-pack of Walkers crisps.

The survey came as High Street chains claim to be succeeding in slashing the number of plastic carrier custom printed shopping bag they hand out to shoppers.

Which? researchers ordered the same 29 items from all five online supermarkets - Asda.com, Ocado.com, Sainsbury’s.co.uk, Tesco.com and Waitrosedeliver.com.

They said a pack of sausages and a packet of mince arrived in their own bags from Tesco which also delivered a bottle of Fairy Liquid in one custom bags. Meanwhile Sainsbury’s allowed one custom printed bags for a six-pack of Walkers crisps.

Which? said: ‘ If you bought a pack of sausages and a packet of mince from a supermarket, you probably wouldn’t put them in separate custom paper bags - but this is just one example of what we found when we tested online supermarkets.

‘When we asked volunteers to try online shopping for our report last month, overuse of custom plastic bag was mentioned - so we decided to carry out some snapshot research.’

Sainsbury’s told the magazine that it was investigating the case of the plastic custom plastic bag with just one six-pack of crisps.

It said that drivers are trained to use minimal numbers of custom printed plastic bags and to take back custom plastic bag for reuse or recycling.

Tesco said it gives its customers the option to have online shopping delivered in crates that are then taken away and its drivers are able to take away used custom promotional bags for recycling.

Tesco also claimed that regular testing showed it was the supermarket that uses the least number of carrier bags in deliveries.