Theresa May unveils 25-year plan to cut plastic waste

The Britain Prime Minister will brand plastic waste "one of the great environmental scourges of our time" and lay out hopes to dramatically reduce it by 2042.

Alongside the plan for supermarkets, the Government will use UK aid money to help developing nations reduce their own waste and will pump cash into plastics innovation.

It will also extend the 5p charge for plastic bags to all shops and look at taxing single-use plastic data-x-items like takeaway boxes and coffee cups.

In a speech in London to launch the landmark drive, Mrs May will say: "I think people will be shocked at how today we allow so much plastic to be produced needlessly."

And she will add: "We look back in horror at some of the damage done to our environment in the past and wonder how anyone could have thought that, for example, dumping toxic chemicals into rivers was ever the right thing to do."

But a string of green groups attacked what they called "woolly" government promises and argued the plans have no legal bite.

Labour meanwhile said the plans were a "cynical attempt at rebranding the Tories' image" while the Liberal Democrats said the 24-year target to remove plastic waste was too long.