Aldi has announced a ban on single-use plastic from all own-brand tea bags in UK stores by the end of 2021.

It is the latest initiative from the budget supermarket chain in their effort to reduce its use of plastic over the next four years.

Aldi is one of the ‘big six’ UK supermarkets, competing alongside Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Lidl.

Last year, the German retailer pledged to half the amount of plastic packaging it uses by 2025. The move will see 74,000 tonnes of plastic packaging removed from its product.

The supermarket will switch to oil-based plastic sealing of tea bags to make its tea bags 100% biodegradable following a number of trials.

In addition, Aldi has also pledged to remove the outer plastic packaging of its own-brand tea bag products.

The move is expected to remove around 1.4 billion pieces of single use plastic which will prevent 80 tonnes of single-use plastics from reaching landfill sites.

Richard Gorman, Plastics and Packaging Director at Aldi UK, said: “By the end of this year, all of our own-brand tea bags will be biodegradable and contain no plastic whatsoever.

“The changes we’ve made to our tea range will help us reduce our environmental impact and offer our customers even more environmentally-sustainable options when they shop at Aldi.”

The supermarket, which has been carbon neutral since January 2019, is also on track to have all own-label products as recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2022, and branded products sold at Aldi by 2025.