Volunteers were stunned when they collected 12,000 discarded plastic bottles from just one kilometre of riverbank at a beauty spot.
Ornithologist Tony Scott, 62, organised a clean-up of the Avon Gorge in Bristol because it was overrun with litter.
But his group of volunteers were stunned when they amassed 12,000 bottles and 100 bags of waste from the banks of the River Avon.
The waste mountain equates to 12 bottles for every metre of terrain and a bag of rubbish for every ten metres.
Now the Bristol Ornithological Club plans to make the clean-up an annual affair to protect the fragile ecosystem in the area.
Tony said: ”Bristol is supposed to be green and clean and the river is one of the gateways to the city. It looks fantastic now.”