IT'S probably the last place on earth you'd expect to find a part-time glamour model, but Sasha Gardner seems quite at home living on Britain's biggest rubbish tip.

The 25-year-old former Bournemouth schoolgirl is one of ten contestants in a new reality documentary series called Dumped, which starts this Sunday on Channel 4.

For the next three weeks the group will be living on a landfill site the size of Hyde Park.

Their eco-challenge is to survive on the rubbish the rest of us have thrown out. Everything they eat, wear, or use will have to come from other people's trash.

"It was really gross, the smelliest thing I have ever smelt in my life," says Sasha, who worked for a firm of solicitors in Canford Cliffs for six years before taking time out to go travelling.

"What's worse is that I definitely thought we'd be taken somewhere really hot and lovely so when we got off the bus and found it was a landfill site I just wanted to get right back on that bus and leave. It wasn't the greatest thing for morale."

Game girl that she is, though, Sasha stuck with it, mucking in to build a shelter for the group and complete the tasks set by producers.

"We had to do everything for ourselves and on the third day they took the toilets away so we even had to build them!

"There was a food delivery on the first day worth £424 pounds so we thought we were going to eat like kings, but by the third day all the meat and fish had gone off because there was no fridge and we were mainly left with fruit and vegetables. The second week the food delivery was all over-packaged foods and the third was a load of black bin liners filled with fruit and veg to show how much the supermarkets throw away."

Dumped is part of C4's commitment to screen programmes about the environment this year.

Andrew Mackenzie, Channel 4's commissioning editor, said: "Some of the tasks may be pretty gross but in compensation the participants will find that even the finer things of life can be catered for with the perfectly re-useable luxury goods that get thrown away."

"By showing how much we all throw away, proving that it is possible to survive on other people's rubbish and giving tips on recycling, the series aims to make a change in the way that participants and viewers live."

It's all a far cry from Sasha's previous life as a blonde, materialistic, promotions girl, who wasn't afraid to admit that she loved her handbags and shoes and liked to look her best at all times.

"Channel 4 interviewed us several times before filming so I knew I'd been picked because of the way I look and the colour of my hair and the fact I'd done modelling. I was there because they expected me to pack up and go after a couple of days - and I did think about it, several times!"

But it turned out Sasha, who has now finished filming, is made of sterner stuff. Earlier this year she ran her first marathon to prove to herself that she could do it; and has another planned later this year.

"I'm on a bit of a mission to challenge myself - I didn't even own a pair of running shoes before I started training. After getting over the shock of the dump, I just really wanted to prove to myself that I could stick it out. I'd never held a saw or a hammer in my life before the show so I not only learned new skills and a lot about the environment - I'm really beating the drum about recycling now - but I also learned a few things about myself."

Sasha has worked in the entertainment industry for four years and has appeared in magazines including FHM and Front as well as some television commercials.

"To be honest, I don't know if this will further my career or anything. Doing the show wasn't really about that. Of course I'd love to do other things on television.

"I didn't expect anything to come of this and I'm not expecting anything after it. What happens happens, but I'm not chasing anything."