MORE than 250 people took part in 26 litter picking events to make this year's Rubbish? Sort It! campaign another huge success.

The third annual event, organised by the Duckworth Worcestershire Trust, city and county councils and supported by the Evening News, saw schools, community groups, parish councils, youth groups and even Neighbourhood Watch groups do their bit in keeping Worcester clean and appealing to visitors.

This year's event, which is also aimed at raising awareness of the benefits of recycling, was brought to an end on Saturday at a ceremony at the Guildhall.

The winners of the campaign's poetry competition, entitled Wasted Words received their prizes from the Mayor of Worcester, Councillor Gareth Jones.

The winning poems, which were read out at the ceremony, are to be published in an anthology, along with other entries, and distributed across the city.

They will also be on display at the Guildhall for the next two weeks

A final total for the amount of rubbish cleared is not yet known, but at the half-way stage of the event, which began on Monday, May 5, a massive two tons of waste had been cleared.

Mark Driscoll, the Trust's project manager, said he would guess that around six to seven tons of litter had now been cleared.

"We have had exactly the same number of events as we did last year," said Mr Driscoll.

"We have had more than 250 litter pickers out on the events so we have been very pleased with the turn out.

"People aged from six to 80 have been involved in this year's event."