A DAY of celebration was held in recognition of a Clacton recycling campaigner who has been voted a "community champion". 

Ellie Fraser has been named Clacton Shopping Village’s Community Champion for 2024

Ellie founded the Tendring Recycling Scheme with the aim of rescuing everyday times slipping through the recycling net and keeping them out of landfill by finding new salvage streams for them. 

Winner - Clacton Shopping Village Community Champion Ellie Fraser, founder of the Tendring Recycling SchemeWinner - Clacton Shopping Village Community Champion Ellie Fraser, founder of the Tendring Recycling Scheme (Image: Simon Rich)

Her organisation, which was founded in 2012 and is based at Tendring Primary School, has a Facebook group with 23,000 members and a network of 20 regular volunteers who have wheelie bins where residents can deposit their hard-to-recycle items. 

Ellie had no idea she had been nominated for the award but polled an impressive 512 votes of the 742 cast

On song - Singer Daniel Townsend entertained the crowd at the eventOn song - Singer Daniel Townsend entertained the crowd at the event (Image: Simon Rich)

It earned her a trophy presented at a celebratory community event at Clacton Shopping Village along with a donation of £500 for the scheme on a day, which also featured entertainment from singers Daniel Townsend and Amber Childs, games and face-painting, and was hosted by MC Kevin Durham.

Art - the face painting at the event was very popularArt - the face painting at the event was very popular (Image: Simon Rich)

She said: “It was a complete surprise to have been nominated but it was a really good event and it was nice to see the other worthy organisations that had been put forward. 

“We do have kerbside recycling collection in Tendring but it is quite limited and so we try to accept what might otherwise be sent to landfill and which could be re-used or recycled. 

Concertation - youngsters enjoyed games of Connect 4 on the dayConcertation - youngsters enjoyed games of Connect 4 on the day (Image: Simon Rich)

“We get everything from odd socks and pairs of specs to old sofas and TV sets and we try and find the right destination for it – some of it raises money which is donated to the primary school and we’ve just installed two new benches in their playground. 

Performance - singer and guitarist Amber Childs in actionPerformance - singer and guitarist Amber Childs in action (Image: Simon Rich)

“Ultimately it is about preventing single use by finding alternative solutions for things that people are throwing away and as well as the wheelie bins we have volunteers who are busy sorting rubbish. It’s become quite a full-on job.” 

The two runners-up, Lisa String and Robert Keenan, were also honoured at the celebration at the shopping centre.