The number of single-use plastic carrier bags sold by English retailers between 7 April 2024 and 6 April 2025 rose by 7%, to 437 million, according to figures from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

It marks the first rise in single-use plastic sales since the Government introduced a 5p fee in 2015 across England and later increased it to 10p.

According to The Times, Ocado sold the highest amount with 221m plastic bags, a 30m increase year-over-year, driven by online shopping packaging.

A spokesperson at Ocado Retail said: “Our approach to deliveries is designed to minimise emissions and waste while keeping customer orders efficient and products in excellent condition from warehouse to doorstep.

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“We were the first retailer to introduce a closed-loop recycling system for plastic bags in 2015, allowing customers to return plastic bags to us – from any retailer – in exchange for a refund, and our current refund rate in bag hand-back is 89%. Returned bags are recycled and used to produce new bags within our closed-loop system.”

Asda, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and The Co-operative Group sold 164 million single-use plastic carrier bags, marking a 6% increase from the comparable year-on-year figure.

The Co-operative Group’s plastic sales increased by 1.3 million. Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons saw their plastic bag sales grow by 2.5m and 5m year-over-year, respectively.

M&S and Asda saw the overall plastic bag sales decrease by 7,000 and 55,000, respectively.