The number of single-use plastic bags sold by major retailers in England has fallen to a record low, having risen in the previous year period, according to new data released by Defra.
The total number of single-use plastic bags sold by the 94 retailers in England who reported data for the period was 399 million for 2025/26, down 9% from the 2024/25 period.
The data shows a welcome reversal of the increase in the previous year period, when the number of single-use plastic bags rose by 7%.
More than half (approximately 225 million) of the single-use plastic bags sold last year were issued by Ocado, Defra data shows. The supermarket increased the number of plastic bags sold from around 221 million in 2024/25 to 225 million in the latest period. The online supermarket says it operates a closed-loop recycling system, and customers can hand back used plastic bags to their delivery driver at the next drop-off and have the bag charge refunded. Ocado claims the refund rate on bag hand-back is 89%.
The drop is driven in part by M&S and Sainsbury’s, which reported they did not sell any single-use plastic carrier bags in the latest year period. While M&S had decreased the number of bags sold by approximately 7,000 in 2024/25, Sainsbury’s sold 2.5 million more in that period.
Asda and Co-op saw decreases of 11,000 and 17 million bags respectively compared to 2024/25. However, Co-op says the bags it sells are not single-use plastic – being 100% certified compostable – despite Defra recording them as being so.
Morrisons reported selling nine million fewer single-use bags in the latest period, having sold five million more in 2024/25 compared to the year before, growth it attributed to an increase in online deliveries, insisting the vast majority were returned and recycled.
From the 2022/23 period onwards, Tesco and Waitrose have reported that they did not sell any single-use plastic carrier bags.
The total number of single-use plastic bags sold by only what Defra considers the seven major supermarkets (Asda, M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Co-op and Waitrose) in England was 126 million – the equivalent of two single-use plastic bags per person – down 23% since 2024/25 and down 90% since 2016/17 when mandatory reporting began.
Notably, the Defra dataset does not account for the number of reusable Bags For Life sold by supermarkets. Co-op has previously argued that major retailers should be required to report on such sales too, saying many shoppers “have simply traded up”.
The government defines a single-use plastic bag as one that is plastic and up to 70 microns thick, is new and has not already been used for sold goods to be taken away or delivered, and has handles, an opening and is not sealed. Plastic bags that are solely used for items like uncooked meat or flowers are excluded from the data.
The UK’s plastic bag levy was imposed initially on large retailers in October 2015, at 5p per bag. It was increased to 10p in May 2021 and expanded to all retailers with more than 250 employees. Sales have been trending downward since 2016, after laws were introduced requiring retailers to charge customers for all single-use carrier bags given out. As well as in 2024/25, sales rose in 2020, when the legal obligation to charge was temporarily removed in a move “to safeguard the health and safety of delivery drivers and the general public” during the Covid pandemic.
“The carrier bag charge has been one of the UK’s biggest environmental stories in a bid to address single-use plastics,” said David Gudgeon, head of external affairs at recycling company Eurokey. “It shows that clear policy can change behaviour.”
The figures come as the UK government confirmed it is to delay the rollout of household collections for flexible plastics – like plastic bags – in England from next year to 2030.
“The reality is that the recent announcement to delay policy implementation for household collections for flexible plastics by three years means that just over one billion additional bags are likely to end up being landfilled or incinerated before households are able to recycle them more widely, wasting valuable, finite resources,” Gudgeon added.
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