'Wasteful' Asda and Sainsbury's slammed for only packing two items per bag

Six months after promising to cut their use of plastic bags, two supermarket chains are actually using more of them to deliver groceries.

Home-delivery staff at Sainsbury's and Asda are putting just two or three items in a typical bag, a survey found.

Sainsbury's used 11 bags to pack 33 items - five bags more than in the last survey three months ago.Asda used 15 bags for 32 items - up from 14 bags for 33 items last time.

Other supermarket chains, however, seem to be reducing the number of bags they use to deliver groceries to online customers.

Scroll down for more

To deliver 33 products Tesco used just four bags, Waitrose used five while Ocado - a delivery service which works in partnership with Waitrose - used six, the survey for the trade magazine The Grocer found.

Environmental campaigners attacked Asda and Sainsbury's over their 'waste' of resources. Sandra Bell, of Friends of the Earth, said:

"It seems astonishing that some supermarkets deliver to their customers with an average of only two or three items in each bag.

"This wasteful use of resources appears to be yet another example of the reality behind the major supermarkets' green claims."

Mike Webster, of pressure group Waste Watch, said the nine biggest supermarket chains give out more than 17billion plastic bags a year.

"We urge retailers to look again at the alternatives - reusable bags, bags with recycled content or charging customers," he told The Grocer.

"For home delivery, cardboard boxes or reusable plastic crates should be considered."

A spokesman for Asda said it was trying to reduce the number of plastic bags used for home deliveries.

A Sainsbury's spokesman said the firm made every effort to ensure as few bags as possible were used and the results were "disappointing".