ALDI customers in Shipley are among the first in Yorkshire to be able to deposit their hard-to-recycle ‘soft’ plastics at its stores as part of the supermarket’s first trial of its collection points for these materials.

The supermarket chain is providing collection bins at the entrances of nine stores in Yorkshire, where customers can deposit clean, soft plastic packaging.

As the vast majority of UK local authorities do not currently collect soft plastics, the collection bins will offer customers the option to return all types of these materials - including crisp packets, salad bags, bread bags and carrier bags - regardless of where the items were purchased.

Aldi will then work with its recycling partner to establish the best routes for the plastics to be processed. If the trial is successful, the collection bins will be rolled out across all of Aldi’s more than 900 UK stores, to provide shoppers with an option to recycle their soft plastics.

The flexible film trial is the latest move to reduce plastic waste by the supermarket, which is also working towards 100 per cent of its own-label packaging being reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2022.

Richard Gorman, Plastics and Packaging Director at Aldi UK, said: “We know our customers are environmentally-conscious, and as a responsible retailer, we are always striving to reduce plastic waste wherever possible.

“Our latest trial is another step in the right direction, as we work towards being able to offer shoppers an option to bring back to our stores problem plastic that might not be recycled by their local councils.

“We will be monitoring the trial closely, and we hope that customers utilise our collection bins so that we can look at expanding this into more stores.”

Full list of participating stores in Yorkshire: • Goldthorpe • Birdwell • Harworth • Holmfirth • Wakefield • Chapel Allerton • Dinnington • Shipley • Seacroft