A scientific stock-take of Wiltshire's rubbish is about to begin in a bid to find out exactly what and how much we throw away.

Wiltshire County Council and the four district councils have been jointly awarded up to £100,000 from DEFRA to pay for a waste compositional analysis.

While similar projects have been carried out in other areas, this is the first ever funded analysis to check for the presence of potentially polluting heavy metals such as mercury, lead, sulphur, cadmium and other contaminates.

Specialists will take samples from the county's household recycling centres, kerbside recycling boxes, trade waste like schools and hospitals and even road sweepings.

They will also look at the contents of more than 50 wheelie bins and black bags across the whole county literally sifting through the rubbish complete with protective clothing, gloves and masks.

This less than appealing job will be carried out at the materials recycling centre (MRF) near Calne.

The MRF is operated with the county council's waste contractors Hills Recycling.

"It is all about finding out exactly what is contained in our rubbish so we can make sure we tailor our waste management services to suit the needs of local people.

"We are delighted to be awarded the funds to be able to carry out this sort of detailed analysis. It really is groundbreaking and the results will be shared nationally," said project manager Dr Julieanna Powell-Turner, who was responsible for securing the successful fund application.

She will be working alongside leading specialist company MEL as they carry out two analyses in June and December.

The Birmingham based company will also look at the sort of rubbish that is dumped by fly tippers often in beauty spots across the county.

"The whole analysis is carried out in a most meticulous way and is totally anonymous.

"While we already have a good idea of the content of the average rubbish bin the majority being packaging, plastics these findings will be invaluable to us in looking at the future development of services," said Dr Powell-Turner.