Four of the UK’s largest supermarkets are aiming to halve the estimated 13 billion free plastic bags given out each year by next April, according to BBC News.

Waitrose, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco all committed to 25 per cent annual cuts in bag use last year and now Waitrose and Asda have told MPs they have achieved 30 per cent cuts by moving bags under counters so shoppers have to ask for them.

The Commons environment and rural affairs select committee into waste management in England is looking into use of the bags.

Committee chairman Michael Jack said: "Asda made a very good business case as to why plastic bags should be dispensed with.” The Leeds-based supermarket aims to reach 50 per cent reduction in bag usage by next Easter.

Other supermarkets have also managed to achieve similar reductions. Usage of Sainsbury's free carrier bags has gone down by 28 per cent and reusable bags sales are up 200 per cent from last year.

Tesco customers "have saved over two billion carrier bags" since August 2006, a spokesman said. By the spring, the company expects to be giving away 50 per cent fewer bags than 2006, driven by incentives using their loyalty card scheme.

Asda also told the committee it had diverted 99 per cent of operational waste from going to landfills in two of its 353 stores, in Bootle near Liverpool and Horwich near Manchester -- by removing all biodegradable waste and using it to generate electricity, and taking out all recyclables. The bags take an estimated 1,000 years to decay.

The company aims to divert over 90 per cent of operational waste in this way in 20 stores by February 2009.

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