SHOPPERS in Burnham-on-Sea will now be able to recycle cling film, crisp packets and salad bags at Tesco.

The store is rolling out a network of soft plastic collection points across the UK.

Martin William Rose, manager at the Burnham-on-Sea superstore, said: “We know that a lot of our customers want to reduce their plastic packaging waste so we are expecting the new soft plastics recycling point to prove popular.

"It will be a really visible sign in store of what we are doing to reduce the impact of plastic packaging.”

Tesco is putting the collection points at all of its Extra and Superstores across the South West, with the superstore on Ben Travers Way being a key part of the network.

This will be the first time that the UK has had a network of collection points of this size dedicated to the collection of soft plastic.

Devon and Cornwall store director Richard Gorman added: “It is an absolute priority to remove and reduce the amount of plastic in our stores to the minimum and ensure everything we use is recycled and kept out of the environment.

"Where plastic serves an important purpose, these new recycling points make sure that every piece can be easily recycled. Trials have shown they are popular with customers, so we believe rolling them out at scale will have a real impact.”

The collection points will enable customers to return all their previously unrecycled soft plastic, regardless of where they bought it, including cling film, pet food pouches and crisp packets to recycling points at their nearest Extra and Superstores store, rather than having to throw it away.

Once collected, the old soft plastic is sent for recycling where it is washed, sorted and processed before being turned in to new packaging.

It will be used to pack items such as food, household and beauty products.