GREEN activists handed back a trolley load of 'pointless plastic' to Tesco this morning.

Oxfordshire Greenpeace volunteers returned the packaging to Oxford Retail Park's Tesco as part of an anti-plastic campaign.

They gave back more than 100 pieces of single-use packaging, collected from customers, to the store manager.

The customers also wrote personal messages to Tesco telling them to ditch the material.

READ AGAIN: Anti-plastic packaging campaigners promise trolly load for Oxford Tesco

One wrote: “Dear Tesco, You bag 3 peppers in plastic yet you sell individual peppers in no plastic… Why?”

Volunteer Julia Spragg added: "The Blue Planet TV film made the extent of the problem excessive single-use plastic packaging is causing in our oceans very clear. Supermarkets must act – it is in their power to really change this.

READ AGAIN: 

- Campaigners call for county to lead the war on plastic pollution

- Oxford cafes praised for avoiding use of plastic

- Oxford student launches coffee cup borrow scheme to fight waste

- Photo montage reveals plastic litter problem in West Oxfordshire

"Their customers want them to do this – we collected all this plastic in less than 2 hours at the Cowley Road Tesco in Oxford from customers who really want them to change. One of their customers was visiting from New Zealand where she said they just don’t pack fruit and vegetables in plastic there. It doesn’t have to be like this.”

Speaking ahead of the action, a Tesco spokesperson said: “We know from our customers this is an important issue and we are working hard to make all our packaging part of a closed loop. This means materials will be used, reused and recycled.

"This year we will have removed the hardest to recycle materials from Tesco and all our packaging will be fully recyclable by 2025, sooner in the UK.”

According to Greenpeace, a recent survey of supermarket plastic use revealed that despite their huge plastic footprint, half of the supermarkets surveyed have no specific targets to reduce plastic packaging and most of those who do are moving at such a slow pace that it would take them 20 years to completely ditch throwaway plastic.

Tesco ranked 5th in the league table published as part of the survey.

Ms Spragg continued: "That’s why over 900,000 people have signed Greenpeace’s petition calling on supermarkets to ditch single use plastics, including 571in Oxfordshire."