Aldi is set to become the first supermarket in the UK to ditch plastic packaging on multipacks of tinned tuna.

The retailer will sell four packs of Tuna Chunks in Brine with a cardboard sleeve, instead of plastic, from mid-September in more than 270 stores.

If successful, the four-month trial will be rolled out nationally to more than 830 UK stores, which will save more than 11 tonnes of plastic every year.

Aldi is also looking to phase out all hard-to-recycle plastic – such as undetectable black plastics, PVC and expanded polystyrene – from its food products by the end of 2020.

In addition, it plans to launch ready meal trays, made from recycled plastic materials, across all its stores for six ready meals.

If introduced across all its ready meal products, Aldi says it could save an estimated 420 tonnes of non-recyclable black plastic a year.

Fritz Walleczek, Managing Director of Corporate Responsibility at Aldi UK and Ireland said: “We’re constantly reviewing our product range to remove and replace single-use and hard-to-recycle plastic packaging. We’ve introduced a number of initiatives to reduce unnecessary plastic already this year, and we’re particularly excited to be trialling the cardboard tuna sleeve, given it’s a first for the UK supermarket sector.

“Cutting waste is such an important part of everything we do at Aldi and these packaging innovations are another example of us doing just this.”

The supermarket has also pledged to ensure all of its own label packaging is recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2022 and aims to reduce plastic packaging by 25% by the end of 2023.