ASDA, owned by Blackburn’s own homegrown success stories the Issa brothers, has announced a new plastic reduction strategy which will mean customers will not have to pay for greener options.

Euro Garages billionaires Mohsin and Zuber Issa bought the supermarket chain as part of a £6.8billion deal earlier this month and this new environmentally sound policy will be one of their first major new innovations.

The new strategy will include refillable solutions, a selection of recycling initiatives and will be trialled in a branch in Leeds.

Asda CEO and president Roger Burnley said: “This is an issue that matters greatly to our customers.

"Our own insight tells us that more than 80 per cent believe that supermarkets have a responsibility to reduce the amount of single use plastics in stores. We want to give them the opportunity to live more sustainably by offering them great product choices and value, underpinned by a promise they won’t pay more for greener options at Asda.

“During the next few months we will listen to customers and colleagues’ feedback so we can understand how we can continue to reduce our environmental impacts, whilst continuing to deliver quality service at a great price.”

The trial store includes 15 huge refill stations offering customers a selection of more than 30 household staples sold in refillable format.

These refill zone includes popular brands of shampoo, conditioner, Persil laundry detergent, hand wash and shower gel from Unilever brands such as Simple and Radox sold in refillable format, which is a retail first.

Over 50 fresh produce lines will be sold in loose and unwrapped format including 29 new lines such as cauliflowers, mushrooms, apples, cabbages and baby plum tomatoes. In addition, all Asda plants and flowers are sold either unwrapped or with a paper wrapping.

It is also removing the outer plastic wrapping on popular Heinz and Asda brand canned multipacks and will supply recycling facilities for items difficult to recycle in kerbside collections such as crisp and biscuit packets, plastic toys, cosmetic containers and toothpaste tubes.