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"This issue can no longer be ignored"

Budgens has become the first British supermarket to create 'plastic-free zones' in one of its London stores in a bid to reduce our single-use plastic use.

The Thornton's Budgens store in Camden stocks 1,700 plastic-free products including bread and meat wrapped in paper, fruit and vegetables encased in Beechwood netting, milk in glass bottles, cheese in clear wax wrap and home compostable food bags.

Campaign group, A Plastic Planet, helped the company create the zones in just 10 weeks. Managers there say they are working hard to make the store completely plastic-free within three years.

Andrew Thornton, founder of Thornton’s Budgens, said all the major supermarkets should be doing more to tackle waste.

"We’re hoping that what we’re doing here will challenge the likes of Sainsbury’s, Tesco and others," he told The Telegraph.

"All the other supermarkets can look and learn from what we’re doing. We have converted 1,700 product lines in just ten weeks, but that’s just the beginning," he added.

"The issue of plastic is one that can no longer be ignored."

David Attenborough's Blue Planet II documentary series is widely credited with causing a huge surge of public interest in single-use plastic pollution.

One hundred and fifty thousand tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the oceans every year, according to the European Union. Last month, the EU said all member states would be single-use plastic free by 2021.

Chancellor Phillip Hammond resisted calls for a 'Latte tax' on single-use plastic coffee cups in the Autumn Budget. Instead, he said the government will consider introducing a levy on packaging that contains less than 30 percent recyclable materials.