Supermarkets need to put more pressure on brands to cut plastic out of their products, according to a campaigner.

Sally Edge, founder of Plastic Free Faversham, urged for more action as Co-op announced today it has banned single-use plastics from its stores.

Around 60 million plastic carrier bags will be removed and replaced with an environmentally friendly alternative in more than 1,000 stores.

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The move is part of a broader plan to ban single-use own brand plastic products and reduce its overall use of plastic packaging within five years, announced in time for National Recycling Week, starting today.

While she welcomed the move, Ms Edge, who lives in Graveney, said she would like to see the supermarkets "to in turn really put pressure on the brands that they stock to do the same".

She said: "Most of these announcements seem to do with their own brands, which is very good, but a lot of the stock on their shelves is other brands that they buy in and I think they should be putting pressure on those brands to do the same and quickly.

"A lot of urgency is needed here. To say in five or six years is not good enough.

"They need to have really dramatic deadlines and get moving on it straight away."

Lightweight compostable carrier bags, which can be used to carry shopping home and then be re-used as food waste caddy liners, will be rolled out in 1,400 Co-op food stores across England, Scotland and Wales, where the local council collects food waste.

Its reductions in plastic use, combined with its new pledge on carrier bags, is the equivalent of 125 million plastic bottles being taken out of production.

Ms Edge added: "It's fantastic we can see public pressure is making supermarkets really move.

"It's almost a fight to announce what they're all doing."