CHILDREN in the New Forest delighted in getting their hands dirty and digging deep to discover all about how rubbish decomposes.

Members of the Big Owls Club at Beaulieu's Out of Town Centre burrowed down into the soil to uncover the results of an experiment.

In April 2003 the Countryside Education Trust club for four-to six-year-olds buried a mixture of household waste.

The time came yesterday for the youngsters to discover which pieces of rubbish had rotted away and which kinds had not broken down.