JULIAN Newton of Aldbourne, near Marlborough, has won a hamper full of Fair Trade goodies in a prize draw organised by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust's home composting team.

Mr Newton was picked out of more than 1,000 respondents to a door-to-door survey exploring the recycling and composting behaviour and attitudes of Wiltshire households, commissioned by Wiltshire County Council.

He chooses to compost because he doesn't like creating waste, or throwing away a valuable free resource.

He said: "By composting all my lawn clippings and other garden waste, I create a nutritional source of organic material to feed the soil in my garden.

"I'm not very scientific about it and I leave it alone to slowly rot. I'd not heard about composting cardboard until told by the trust, and I'm looking forward to trying it."

The survey found that although half of what we throw away is biodegradable, two thirds of Wiltshire households do not compost at home. The most common reason is that respondents consider their

gardens too small.

Of the third who do compost, the two most common reasons given, apart from creating compost for the garden, is to reduce the waste they throw away, and to help the environment.

The trust's waste prevention manager Mike Read said: "We've still got a long way to go to convince people composting is easy to do.

"People need to know that composting cardboard helps both your compost bin and your soil because it's fibrous and full of carbon, which provides the bugs in the bin with the diet they need to do the job."

The survey reveals the typical Wiltshire composter is aged between 35 and 59 years old, lives in a detached house and uses the compost in the garden.