LANCASHIRE-BASED food and drink retailer Booths is stepping up its efforts to reduce the amount of single-use plastic being used within its stores.

The family-owned grocery chain has launched an initiative encouraging customers to bring their own reusable containers to purchase fresh meat and fish from their counters.

It has outlets across across Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Cheshire and Greater Manchester including stores in Clitheroe, Barrowford and Longridge.

Booths Brand and Innovations Manager, Matt Bruno said ‘’We’re constantly striving to become a more environmentally friendly retailer.

Enabling our customers to bring their own clean, lidded containers to purchase fresh meat and fish from our counters is a natural progression towards becoming more sustainable.’’

Booths are continuing to phase out single-use plastic and have completely removed plastic cutlery for their takeaway counter products and inside Booths branded pre-packaged 'food to go' options to stop 500,000 pieces of plastic cutlery being used within the business each year.

Other initiatives include: changing pre-packed options to include less plastic waste and more recyclable materials; the removal of plastic bottles from Booths cafés and switching over to glass bottles and cans which are indefinitely recyclable; and the replacement of plastic straws with paper ones.