The supermarket giant is scrapping plastic trays from ready meals, secondary lids on products such as cream and yoghurts, straws from drink cartons, forks from snack pots, and small plastic bags used to carry loose fruit and vegetables.

Tesco said 200 million pieces of plastic alone will be stripped out by removing the packaging used on clothing and greetings cards.

The move forms part of the grocer’s ‘Four Rs’ strategy – remove, reduce, reuse or recycle – to axe all non-recyclable and excess packaging from its business.