Eleven-year-old Ailsa Parson, a pupil at Edzell Primary School, took part in a competition to design a mascot which will now watch over the village's recycling centre.

Ailsa's sign depicts her creation Clara Can!, a recycled tin can with Edzell's famous Arch on its chest, using a skateboard made of recycled materials to get about, while spreading the recycling message through a speech bubble.

The competition was run by Edzell Community Recycling, a sub-group of EVIS, and was open to all pupils in the school to design a poster which would appear on a new sign at the centre. It is also hoped that a laminated collage of all the entries to be put up at the site.

A spokesperson for the group said: "The standard of entries was extremely high and gave us a difficult job in choosing a winner. The drawings showed a great deal of imagination and it is clear that Edzell's youngsters have a good grasp of recycling issues.

"Our congratulations go to Ailsa Parson, whose design Clara Can! captured the attention with its bold, clear and good use of Edzell imagery.

"If Clara can capture the recycling message then we are sure she will be a great vehicle for raising awareness."

Edzell Community Recycling, formerly known as the Skip Group, is a group of local volunteers who run the recycling facilities and generally waste skips in the village.

The group is currently working on re-branding the recycling centre in the hope that it will give the community more ownership of the facility.

As well as providing a site for recycling cans, bottles, plastics and clothing facilities, the centre also offers facilities for both cardboard and green waste. Both of these facilities divert waste away from landfill and generate income for the group to go towards the cost of a SEPA licence, which is necessary for the group to be allowed to operate a site that has a landfill.

Recycling is at the heart of what Edzell Community Recycling do as a community group, with a view to diverting as much waste away as possible from landfill. If you would like to help you should contact Ian on 648865.

In particular, the group would welcome new volunteers to help with opening and closing the site.

They have a monthly rota where folk sign up to three day slot. Some do mornings and evenings, others can just manage one or the other.

If you are available to help with this vital task, to spread the load and keep the burden on others to a minimum, you can add your name to the list of people on the rota by contacting Carol on 647132.