The move is part of M&S’s plans to reduce single-use packaging and encourage a change in consumer behaviour.

M&S Market Place is available in in 23 stores, including London Pantheon on Oxford Street, Newcastle, Norwich and Manchester, and offers a variety of hot and cold lunch-to-go options, from rotisserie chicken and fish to freshly prepared salads. More than 70,000 people buy their lunch in an M&S Market Place each week.

Paul Willgoss, director of food technology at M&S, said: “Our priority is to reduce single-use packaging and ensure any we do use can be reused or recycled, as we work towards our 2022 target for all our packaging to be widely recyclable.

“Food-to-go is a growing market; so finding solutions in this space is an important part of our wider plan. Our Market Place containers are already widely recyclable, but we want to go a step further with the introduction of an incentive to encourage customers to switch to reusable containers.”

Customers can buy reusable clip storage containers from Market Place counters from £4, or bring their own container.

M&S already offers a 25p incentive for hot drinks served in reusable coffee cups – this was introduced in April 2018.

Trewin Restorick, CEO and founder of environmental charity Hubbub, said: “People are rightly concerned about the environmental impact of single-use packaging. It is massively encouraging to see M&S become the first major retailer to offer customers a financial saving encouraging them to make an important change to their shopping habits. We hope customers will respond positively and other retailers will follow this lead.”