'Hypocrisy' of the so-called green stores STILL overloading us with packaging

They urged consumers to shop at local markets to avoid having to throw away vast amounts of paper and plastic.

They said the packaging was often needlessly wrapped around fruit and vegetables such as apples and even coconuts.

The study by the Local Government Association, the umbrella body for councils, looked at the packaging provided with 29 items from six retailers. They compared this with similar produce bought from independent high street stores and a large market.

The chain with the heaviest packaging for the 29 items was Lidl at 813g, ahead of Marks & Spencer at 807g, Sainsbury's at 746g and Morrisons at 726g.

Tesco scored relatively well at 667.5g, while the best of the big stores was Asda at 646g.

But best overall was a large market, which provided only 617g of packaging  -  some 24 per cent less than Lidl.

The market also came first in the proportion of packaging that could be recycled  -  76 per cent  -  largely because it was providing traditional paper bags. The worst performers were Lidl and M&S, where only 62 per cent of the packaging could be recycled.

However, the study did find some progress had been made. Most retailers had a lower weight of packaging than in a survey last year.

But Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Steve Webb said: 'This survey shows how much further we still have to go to eliminate unnecessary waste and make sure that all packaging is recyclable.

'While markets and local stores are performing far better on reducing waste packaging, the supermarket giants are lagging behind.

'It is time that the supermarkets used their huge market power with their suppliers to demand dramatic improvements in cutting out unnecessary packaging and increasing the proportion that can be recycled.'

The chairman of the Local Government Association Environment Board, Paul Bettison, said: 'The days of the clingfilm coconut must come to an end.