A FASHION show brought this year's campaign to clean up the city to a successful close.

Twenty-eight young designers showed off their creations, which were made entirely from recycled and re-used materials, at St Andrews Church Hall on Pump Street on Saturday.

The Rubbish? Sort It! campaign, which was organised by the city council and the Duckworth Worcestershire Trust and supported by the Evening News, has tried to raise awareness about the problems of litter and also encourage more people to recycle.

Tetyana Simpson, aged 22, a student at the Worcester School of Art and Design won the fashion show's 16-and-over category and Leanne Cook, 13, of Nunnery Wood High School, won the 12 to 15 category.

Earlier on in the day, more than 100 people marched to a samba beat along the High Street parading two giant caterpillars made by city schoolchildren using recycled materials.

Since the scheme was launched on Thursday, April 17, there have been 25 litter picking/recycling events, which resulted in around 14 tons of waste being collected from several dozen sites across the city.

Ten per cent of the total waste collected was recycled.

An example of the success of such events was the Lyppard Grange Litter Pick, which was held on Wednesday, May 7.

In the space of two hours, 96 children from Lyppard Primary School collected 28lb of general rubbish, 22lb of plastic, 44lb of paper and 7lb of cans, both steel and aluminium.

Mark Driscoll, project manager for the Duckworth Worcestershire Trust, said it had been a hectic campaign and he was very pleased with the number of communities who had taken part.

A huge difference had been made in cleaning up parts of the city during the past month, but he emphasised that litter was a year-long problem that could not be solved in a four-week campaign.

"At the St George's playing fields, we managed to clean up eight tons of litter, so that made a huge difference," he said.

"We cannot clean up everything, but the spots that we have cleaned have seen great improvements and we hope they will stay like that.

"Litter will always be a problem, but the whole point of this campaign was to raise awareness and encourage people to recycle."

Mr Driscoll professed himself particularly proud of the fact that during the campaign, the number of volunteer litter wardens had increased.

"We now have just over 60 volunteers, with 40 in Worcester and 20 in Malvern," he said.

"Ten more volunteers joined in the past month."

"We give them free litter-pickers, bags and gloves and they say which area they wish to clean up.

"This is giving the local community the responsibility for the environment in their area."