WILTSHIRE Wildlife Trust has hailed Westbury pensioner Jean Bull as an "inspiration to all who want to do more for the environment".

Mrs Bull won a £100 prize hamper in a draw organised by the trust's home composting team and they are now encouraging others to follow her example.

The trust interviewed more than 1,000 Wiltshire residents in a door-to-door survey looking at attitudes to recycling and composting and staff were inspired by Mrs Bull's response.

Home composting officer Rachel Dedman said: "The full survey report will be available from the trust later on this year. In the meantime Jean will remain an inspiration to all who want to do more for the environment.

"Now in her 70s, she has been composting for most of her life and has only just given this up because of her age.

"She took part in the survey because her late husband had been a keen wildlife enthusiast and used to take her on nature walks when they were first courting."

This is the second year Wiltshire Wildlife Trust has run the survey and the results show a 20 per cent increase in the number of households composting their green waste. And to encourage even more to get involved the trust is now selling subsidised composting bins.

Ms Dedman said: "We are very excited about the findings of this year's survey. The results show there are a growing number of people who are becoming more environmentally aware and are prepared to take action.

"However, we still have a lot of work to do to encourage others to follow this lead."

She added: "Many barriers to home composting can be overcome through education, but ones such as real lack of space or willingness to home compost need alternative solutions to be provided.

"The trust is currently working with the Wiltshire Waste Partnership in setting up a network of community composting sites for people who do not have the space to compost at home."

Next month residents in Trowbridge and Melksham will receive an extra green bin to include compostable waste like grass cuttings, leaves and tea bags. The new project, which was introduced by a series of recycling roadshows, will see the green bins collected on alternate weeks to the existing black bins.

West Wiltshire District Council plans to extend the scheme to the remaining three towns as it bids to meet government recycling targets and avoid a hefty fine.