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Thank you for your email.

We understand your concerns regarding the use of bags and most of our stores have the facility to recycle these.

Stores currently return the carrier bags to an RSU (Recycling Service Unit). We have approx. 10 RSU's in the UK and all stores should be aware of them. Some of the common RSU's are at Hinckley and Chepstow. In Scotland the Recycling Unit is in Dundee.

The carrier bags are mixed with the rest of our plastic waste for recycling. This waste is shipped overseas where it is sorted, recycled into plastic pellets, then sold to plastic manufacturers to be made into other products.

However, Tesco is now leading the way in 'green' shopping by gradually introducing fully degradable carrier bags in all our stores up and down the country.

This means that the waste will be sent to landfill sites, where the heat generated within these, will lead to disintegration of the degradable Tesco bags within a few months. This is of added benefit when the bags are commonly used as bin-liners, since it allows the flow of air and water around food and garden waste. Effectively, this results in more rapid bio-degradation, than if it was enclosed in ordinary carrier bags.

I trust that this explanation answers your concerns.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us at customer.service@tesco.co.uk quoting ***********.

Regards

Gayathri Devi
Tesco Customer Service

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