Greenpeace volunteers from St Albans returned a trolley full of single-use packaging to a supermarket to urge them to cut down on plastic waste.

Volunteers returned a trolley to the store manger of Sainsbury’s in Everard Close on Saturday, protesting the 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste generated by UK supermarkets every year.

Customers also wrote personal messages to Sainsbury’s asking them to ditch single-use plastic.

Volunteer Juliet Voisey said: “Shoppers coming out the store complained that they would have to throw away all this packaging when they got home. Supermarkets need to act now and drastically reduce their over-packaging of items.”

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We’re working hard to ensure our packaging is as recyclable as it can be and are one of few retailers to invest in recycling facilities at many of our supermarkets.”