Morrisons is to offer customers 20p paper carrier bags in a bid reduce plastic waste.

The paper bags will be offered in English stores from May, after an initial roll-out in Wales.

The bags, which have been trialled in a number of Morrisons stores since January, are made in Wales from paper from sustainably managed forests and are strong enough to carry heavy weights up to 16kg.

They will be priced at 20p - the same price as Morrisons standard plastic carrier bag.

Andy Atkinson, group customer and marketing director at Morrisons, said: 'We are taking another meaningful step that will remove an estimated 1,300 tonnes of plastic out of the environment each year.

'Our customers have told us that reducing plastic is their number one environmental concern so introducing the paper bag across the nation will provide another way of reducing the plastic in their lives.'

The supermarket assessed the bag's carbon footprint and said it is equivalent to the standard plastic carrier bag.

Morrisons has stores in Norwich, Old Catton, Wymondham, Beccles, Diss, Gorleston, Cromer, Lowestoft, Dereham, Downham Market, King's Lynn and Fakenham.