Consumer spending on ethical products has rocketed over the last two decades, outpacing wider household expenditure.

Total ethical spending in the UK has increased almost four-fold in the past 20 years versus household expenditure which only rose by approximately 2%, according to the Co-op.

The average spend on ethical purchases per household has risen from £202 per annum in 1999 to £1,278 in 2018.

In 1999 the market was worth £11.2bn. Today, “on a conservative basis”, it is valued at £41.1bn.

The Co-op released the data from its Ethical Consumerism Report as it pledged to use 100% own-brand recyclable packaging which it said “will lead to the largest-ever UK-wide scheme to recycle plastic film”.

The grocer said yesterday that it has banned black plastic packaging from all of its products and by the summer of 2020 it will have phased out all non-recyclable plastics and replaced them with those that can be reused or easily recycled.

Co-op Food chief executiveJo Whitfield said: “We should rightly celebrate the growth that we’ve seen in ethical markets in the UK over the last 20 years.

“UK businesses, and NGOs have pioneered many of these developments and today we have multi-billion pound markets that either didn’t exist or if they did, other mainstream businesses were unconvinced of their potential to succeed.

“It has also taken smart government intervention to get us this far. Going forward, ethical consumerism will continue to play a pivotal role in the pursuit of more sustainable products, businesses and markets. However, now is not the time to rest on our laurels, it’s the time double down on our efforts.

“That’s why we’ve brought forward our commitment on own-brand recyclable plastic by three years, why we’re committed to reducing unnecessary packaging and why our long term vision is to be a carbon neutral business.”