The Tesco supermarket in Shepton Mallet is one of those earmarked for a new trial, recycling so-called "soft plastics".

The supermarket in Townsend Shopping Park has a deposit site in the store and is one of 171 large Tesco stores across Wales and the South West taking part in the pilot.

The recycling scheme will take plastics including cling film, pet food pouches and crisp packets.

Last year ten stores took part in a smaller trial of the new type of collections, with the material collected used to make food-grade packaging for Tesco own-brand cheeses.

Environmentalists estimate that if the pilot is successful and Tesco puts a collection point in all of its large UK stores - that would make it the largest network of recycling points for this type of plastic and lead to recycling around 1,000 tonnes of soft plastics each year.

UK supermarkets generate around 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging every year, according to Greenpeace.

WWF sustainable materials specialist Paula Chin said: "Plastic pollution is one of the most visible symptoms of the environmental crisis and is devastating our natural world.

"Businesses, governments and households have all got an important part to play in tackling the issue, so it's encouraging to see Tesco extending their successful soft plastics collection trial across more of their stores, giving their customers even more opportunity to recycle these valuable materials."