STUDENTS have been fighting back against litter in targeted poster campaign.

Year 7 students from The Wellington Academy have been working with The Ludgershall Litter pick group and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust to try and clean up Ludgershall and Tidworth's litter.

They are asking visitors and residents to put their litter in the bin or take it home and recycle it.

To encourage people to stop dropping litter in and around the area, the students were helped to design and put up posters and litter bin stickers.

The students had help from the Waste Education Team from Wiltshire Wildlife Trust (WWT) and input from Tidworth Town Council, which has run Keep Tidworth Tidy community litter picks.

The students researched who was dropping the rubbish locally, what was being dropped and where and looked at high-impact litter campaigns for inspiration.

They also had help from Steve Dixon, a graphic designer.

Gemma Annan, the education officer at WWT, who organised the campaign said: “We want the students to be part of the solution, not the pollution. Let’s tell Tidworth to recycle and dispose of rubbish responsibly.”

Tracy Pye, special educational needs teacher and achievement leader at The Wellington Academy said: “It is important that we teach our future generations the importance of what litter can do and the impact it has.

"Working with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust has been great fun for our students as they have learnt about the impact of littering on the environment, and also ways in which they can help reduce this.

"They have seen first-hand the amount of litter in the local area by undertaking a litter pick. Myself and the students are very proud to have been part of this collaboration.”

In Wiltshire £2.5 million is spent picking up litter each year.

Funded by Wiltshire Council, the Waste Education Team work in communities across Wiltshire to educate and engage children and adults in all kinds of fun ways to reduce their rubbish and recycle more at home.