Shoppers revolted against plastic pollution this weekend by handing over unwanted food wrappings.

Sainsbury’s supermarket on High Street in Walthamstow was targeted by campaigners from the Waltham Forest Greenpeace group who urged the supermarket chain to shun single-use plastic.

UK supermarkets generate billions of plastic items each year.

A 2018 survey found that Sainsbury’s has one of the worst records for throwaway packaging.

Shoppers leaving the Walthamstow store were asked by volunteers to hand over fruit and vegetable wrappers, trays and multi-pack bindings.

Boxes full of the unwanted plastic will be returned to supermarkets by Greenpeace next month on a “No Thank You Day”.

Customers wrote accompanying notes saying things such as “Clean up your act” and “Save our oceans”.

Greenpeace UK Oceans campaigner Elena Polisano said: “Plastic pollution is now a full-blown environmental crisis and our supermarkets are right at the heart of it.”

Due to programmes such as BBC’s Blue Planet, public awareness of the impacts of plastic are at an almost high with 800,000 people signing a petition to retail giants.

Last year, “single-use” was voted as the word of the year.