Ten people are living off rubbish in Beddington Lane landfill site as part of a new TV show intended to highlight the effects of unnecessary waste.

The Channel 4 show - tentatively named Eco Challenge - follows the fortunes of the group as they eke out a living by scavenging discarded food and clothes and build shelters using trash.

Due to be screened this autumn, the programme has been welcomed by the director of Carshalton-based environmental organisation Ecolocal, Trevor Lancefield.

"This sounds like an interesting idea for a programme," he said. "I think that anything that shows people the result of what they are actually doing to the environment is a good thing.

"People need to see these landfill sites to see where their rubbish is going. It's very important in the context of their own ways of life and their overall effect."

The 10 contestants moved into the site last week and are expected to survive for three weeks by picking through the mounds of rubbish.

A spokesman for Channel 4 said: "I wouldn't call this a reality television show. There are no winners or public votes. It is more of an observational documentary.

"All of the people involved have to live off of things that other people have thrown away. They have to eat the food supermarkets have thrown away because it is out of date and build their own shelter using materials from the dump.

"It's not like they are going through bin bags of nappies and syringes though. This is more about showing the problem that landfill is and basically showing that it would be possible to live off of the things that other people throw away."

  • What do you think? Could you live off other people's rubbish?