SHOPPERS who have had enough of their weekly items being wrapped in single-use plastic staged a protest outside a popular supermarket.

Plastic Free Llangollen organised the protest at Aldi in Llangollen on Saturday, September 7 and invited shoppers to join them in unwrapping their purchases and leaving the rubbish in a trolley at the store.

About 8 million pieces of plastic go into the oceans every day and plastic packaging is of particular concern because it is only used for a short period of time.

Similar 'mass unwrap' protests have taken place across the UK to pressure retailers to offer more environmentally-friendly products.

Eleri Hayhurst, Plastic Free Llangollen member, said: “It’s very simple – everyone is doing their shopping as normal, but on the way out they’re leaving any items of plastic packaging they don’t want with us.

“Lots of people have been taking part and we’ve collected enough to fill a trolley in just two hours, which shows how much excess packaging there is.

“The purpose of a mass unwrap is to highlight the issue of plastic waste and also show supermarkets that many customers do not want a lot of unnecessary packaging.”

Aldi agreed to take the plastic once the protest had finished.

Harri, aged 5, who also took part, said: “I’m worried about the whales and the sharks, because I love animals and I want to help them and the planet. I’ve cleaned plastic rubbish from beaches, and I want the shops to stop using so plastic too.”

An Aldi spokesperson said: "We are absolutely dedicated to reducing plastic in our supply chain. We’re currently on track to have all our own-label packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2022 and reduce plastic packaging by 25% by the end of 2023.

“Since 2018 we’ve removed over 550 tonnes of plastic and replaced almost 3,000 tonnes of unrecyclable material with recyclable alternatives.”