Tesco has told suppliers they must move much more quickly in getting rid of plastics from shelves.

The UK's biggest supermarket has set a challenging target of removing plastic from five billion products sold by 2025, as reported by Retail Gazette.

This represents a massive scaling up of its '4Rs' (remove, reduce, reuse, recycle) strategy. Earlier this year, Tesco said the strategy had led to the removal of 1.6 billion pieces of plastic across 1,500 different products since its launch in 2019.

Now Tesco is bringing suppliers together to find solutions and alternatives to plastics and to speed up the change.

The main focus will be on loose or unpackaged goods, including fresh fruit and vegetables. It will also aim for a big increase in the use of concentrates and reusable and refillable packaging.

Tesco said it is telling suppliers they must speed up their progress and go further in removing plastic where alternatives are possible. It has produced a list of preferred alternative materials, as well as a list of the materials it is phasing out.

The supermarket has warned suppliers that it will stop stocking products which fail to meet its new requirements on plastics.