M&S to stop providing bags for 'click and collect' customers after succesful packaging reduction trial including its Whiteley store

M&S Whiteley was one of 16 stores which trialled the reduced packing scheme, whereby customers were asked to bring carrier bags to collect shopping they had ordered online. According to M&S, 109,000 fewer plastic bags were used in the 39,347 orders that were fulfilled during the seven-month trial. The Whiteley Village store is set use 26,178 fewer bags per year based on the trial.

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M&S Whiteley Village store manager Louise Lamb said: ‘We’re very proud to have been part of the trial for this new click & collect plastic saving initiative and delighted the success has led to a UK wide roll-out.

‘The community were really receptive to the trial, and we continue to see more and more people bring their own bags for their daily shop.

‘M&S is the first large retailer to adopt this approach, and we’re thrilled that M&S Whiteley Village helped pave the way to this initiative to be rolled out nationally.’

The chain estimates that the approach will save 10 million units of plastic annually across 251 of its locations nationwide.

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M&S.com director Stephen Langford said: ‘Using our stores to fulfil Click & Collect orders continues to grow and we want to use this as a channel to encourage a behaviour change that helps to reduce single use plastic consumption. During trial phase, we had great feedback from customers as they saw it as a simple action that, collectively, can make a big difference.’