Countdown's transition to removing plastic bags will be finished this month

All of Countdown's 180 supermarkets across New Zealand will no longer supply single-use plastic bags as of October 15.

Countdown was the first supermarket to announce it would phase out the bags, and it has steadily removed them from more and more shops since about a year ago.

The supermarket will still offer re-usable bags for sale for $1, which can be returned to the supermarket and replaced for free if they are damaged.

They are also currently trying out the use of paper bags in some of their bakeries.

A spokesperson said "we're also now turning our focus to the produce and fresh sections of our stores in our wider efforts to remove and reduce unnecessary plastic and packaging wherever we can".