"I'M not green, or PC, or any of that rubbish. I want to do what makes sense."

Straight-talking Castlepoint boss Peter Matthews hates waste.

He keeps a plastic bag in his car for rotting banana skins from his breakfast until it is full and ready for composting.

And he has overseen massive changes in recycling rates in Dorset's biggest out of town shopping centre.

His dream is 100 per cent of waste being reused.

And he'd like solar panels on the roofs and wind turbines in the yards - if they ever became cost effective.

"My kids call me an eco-warrior, which is annoying. I just can't stand things being thrown away," Mr Matthews told the Echo.

"Maybe it's in the genes - my grandmother would walk half the length of Swindon high street to save a ha'penny."

It's now two years since the changes started.

Switching office heating off overnight helped cut gas bills by 39 per cent.

And the centre uses 18 per cent less electricity. Mr Matthews said the key was, in saltier language than reported, turning the flipping things off'.

Car park lights are no longer left on outside Sunday opening hours or when the lower level is closed.

But his biggest passion is recycling and waste.

You could see it when he waved his sandwich box around and explained he recycled the plastic and cardboard bits separately.

The anchor stores like B&Q and Asda send their own waste back to their depots.

The other shops recycle waste like cardboard and plastic coat hangers, and other material like polystyrene and aluminium cans will follow.

Mr Matthews said: "West Quay in Southampton did 269 tonnes of cardboard last year and it's a much bigger centre, so we feel 225 tonnes of cardboard is damn good."

It's also cost effective to be green. Each ton of rubbish for landfill costs around £550 and power bills went up by 26 per cent in October.

Water use is also down by 36 per cent. The urinals are cleaned twice a day but rely on blue blocks, not regular flushing water.

And Mr Matthews hopes to have a rooftop "water harvesting" system in place by the summer to collect and re-use rainwater in the toilets.

He acknowledges the problem of pollution from the 4.8m cars that visit the centre each year is difficult to solve.

And it is difficult to retrofit the building with all the latest green devices. Research showed turbines would not generate enough power and could damage the structure.

But he said: "I don't know we are doing anything different to other shopping centres. But we are doing our bit."