The city of Austin aims to increase recycling rates by making a game of it. The Austin Recycles Games pit residents in different City Council district against one another to see which district can recycle the most.

The winning districts receive a beautification project for a local library or public park. Districts can win one of two categories: most overall recycling and most improved. The winning districts will be announced at an Earth Day event April 23.

Austin Resource Recovery created the competition after receiving community feedback about why residents were not recycling and how to increase participation.

“One of the responses was to make it fun … to make it a game,” said Memi Cárdenas, public information specialist with Austin Resource Recovery.

The city plans to provide monthly updates on how much households are recycling in each district between December and March. Cárdenas said community feedback showed residents were unsure about what and how to recycle.

“We think people are not thinking beyond the kitchen when it comes to recycling,” she said.

The city department conducted a waste characterization study last spring and found 44 percent of landfill items could be recycled; the most common of those items—at 23 percent—was paper, she said.

Austin Resource Recovery plans to hand out smaller recycle bins for bedrooms and bathrooms at community events throughout the city to cut the number of recyclables that make it to the landfill, Cárdenas said. The city will coordinate with council members to decide which events to attend, she said. Residents can keep up with community events at www.facebook.com/austinrecycles.

“By engaging the City Council members, we can employ more grassroots efforts and target the barriers to recycling specific to each unique Austin community," Austin Resource Recovery Director Bob Gedert said in a news release.

Residents can visit www.austinrecycles.com to look up recyclable items and find their recycle bin pick up schedule. Visit www.austintexas.gov/games to keep up with each council district’s rank.

The games are part of the city’s commitment to reduce the amount of landfill waste by 90 percent by 2040 or sooner.

“We’re seeing how this goes. We hope that it’s successful, and we hope to carry it on in future years,” Cárdenas said.