IT WAS a walk in the country that launched one man's mission to collect hedgerow litter and inspire him to reduce his own household waste to virtually nil.

John Wort who lives in Blakeney now cuts up all his plastic bottles and composts his cardboard. Newspapers, tins and newspapers are all collected from the kerbside and the rest of his waste amounts to one small bag the size of a bag of frozen peas a month.

But the catalyst for starting on his own personal waste reduction drive came from daily walks around Awre and Purton.

"About four years ago I started walking from Awre and Purton back round to Little Hagloe and noticed how much rubbish there was in the hedgerows, so I started collecting it. I filled 24 bin bags and now I can do the same walk and collect just one carrier bagful. I've nearly picked the area clean as a whistle."

John is now part of the 70-strong Dean Forest Environment and Resource Network (FERN) which aims to take action on reducing waste throughout the Dean area.

Bella Edgington from FERN said the group's given out recycling boxes to 230 households in a core area round Lower Ruspidge, Soudley and Blakeney and has plans for volunteer-run cardboard collections.

"We found a lot of people in Soudley really wanted a cardboard collection point. But to do this the district council would have to put out a huge skip which just isn't suitable in the village.

"What we're looking at is talking to local businesses, including the heritage centre, school and local pub as well as villagers to organise collections and storage from this autumn."

The group is also talking to local supermarkets about waste reduction, crisp bag recycling and the Fair Shares system of redistributing food which is thrown away but not past its sell by date.

To find out more about Fern, telephone Bella on Dean 826464 or email [email protected]">[email protected]