A passionate conservationist collected 50kg of rubbish from a lake in Weymouth, almost double the amount she collected last year.

Since 2016, Kathryn Bland, 22, from Weymouth, has been taking part in local litter picks and recording the amount of rubbish she collects.

So far she has collected a total of 4,197 kilos of rubbish.

Last year she took it upon herself to clear Radipole Lake and swannery of rubbish and collected a total of 28kg of litter.

Earlier this month, Miss Bland headed back out onto the water in her kayak with the same mission.

She said: “I did a litter pick of the lake last year, but I noticed it was beginning to accumulate again, where I had done it previously. Since the last litter pick, I bought my own one-man kayak, so I waited for a nice day and drove down there with the help of my dad. After finishing the clean and kayaking back, I noticed three ducks returning and feeding in the newly-cleaned area.”

She said there was a mix of glass and plastic floating on the lake’s surface, as well as a traffic cone.

Miss Bland explained: “There were a lot of bottles, both glass and plastic and a lot of beer cans. I also pulled out a traffic cone, a ball and a needles box. One of the cans I pulled out had a fish inside which thankfully swam out when I submerged it in the water.”

After clearing the lake, she returned to her home, where she weighed the rubbish, sorted it into piles and recycled it.

She added: “I am not entirely clear on why there is more, maybe there are more social activities happening in the area, but I think the reason it has accumulated there is because there must be a flow of water moving in that direction and the wall/gate catches the rubbish before it ends out at sea.”

Ms Bland runs the

campaign Plastic Pollution Solution, which aims to raise awareness of the impact of plastic on the natural world. The Echo reported how Ms Bland travelled to Bali, Fiji and New Zealand to see how they’re dealing with the problem of plastic pollution.

She explained: “I am doing this for the wildlife, the ecosystems, and the oceans. I wouldn’t like to think I stood by and watched as plastic pollution happened, I’d rather be proactive about it. I try and raise awareness by doing really big and crazy beach cleans to show people to not be scared of picking up litter.Hopefully in the future more people will use the bin and not the lake.”