OXFORD United have become the first football club in the country to use 'carbon neutral' plastic bags.

Working with their long term back-of-shirt sponsor Polythene UK, the club will start using the specially made bags in their shops in the Kassam Stadium and Covered Market imminently.

Certified by the Carbon Trust, the bags are carbon neutral, meaning there is no net release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in their manufacture.

Witney-based company Polythene UK has developed the technology and manufacturing process for the bags using plant-based raw material.

The company, which has been a main sponsor of United since 2010, believe the product is 'ground-breaking' and hope that many other clubs will follow it's lead in stocking the bags.

Managing director James Woollard said he hoped the project would allow football fans to find out about alternatives to single-use plastic bags, which are often found littering oceans and harming wildlife.

He said: “Myself and Polythene UK have been heavily involved with the club for coming up to 10 years.

"This collaboration will hopefully enable us to make many more people aware that polythene (plastic) bags can now be made from sustainable raw materials and if through football and more importantly through Oxford United then we are onto a winner."

The U's head of retail Lee Barton said they had long wanted to cut back on the use of plastics, where possible, and the introduction of the bags was one step among many they are looking at.

He added: “As a club retail department, we are acutely aware of the amount of single use plastics that are used in the industry, and we are actively looking to work with our other suppliers to reduce the volume of single use plastics in the rest of our operations."

The use of plastic bags in the UK dropped dramatically following the introduction of a small charge in 2014 but there were still thought to be more than a billion used last year.

Commercial and marketing director Matt Everett said: “It is fantastic that one of our main sponsors and a locally based company are at the forefront of developing a product which will help the environment moving forward.

"As soon as we heard about this, it was an easy decision for us to switch our bags. Single use plastics are rightly in the news a lot recently, and whilst we have seen several other clubs reducing the use of single use plastics or switching to paper, we believe we are the first to adopt this carbon neutral approach.

"If we can help Polythene UK to introduce this product to more football clubs in the UK or further afield as part of our own long term partnership then we will do everything that we can to help.”"