Recycl-ympics
RecycleMania Activity
Effort & Resources
Substantial effort.
Objective/Overview
Moderate cost.
Objective & Overview
The objective of this activity is to rally your campus around RecycleMania with a day of “Recycl-ympic”
sports! Like a field day, this activity is a fun way for students to compete in different events, either as teams
or individuals.
Step 1: Set a Date
Contact your campus recreation or activities office to set a date for the event when there is outdoor space
available. Also considering reserving an indoor space in case it rains! Have students sign up during the weeks
before the Recycl-ympics so you can create a tournament-style lineup, or simply set up stations so that students can compete in different events on a first come, first served basis.
Step 2: Pick Activities and Gather Materials
See the next page for a list of Olympics-inspired recycling games and required materials. Prepare a sign-up
sheet for each activity, or use white boards at each event to keep track of who’s competing next. Also purchase a large number of small prizes if you would like to reward the winner of each round, or something
more substantial for the overall winner of each event.
Step 3: Recruit Volunteers
Depending on how much participation you expect, you may need a lot of volunteers to facilitate this event.
Consider partnering with clubs, sports teams, or other on-campus organizations to help publicize and staff
your event.
Step 4: Let the Games Begin!
Assign one or two volunteers to each Recyc-olympic event. Ideally, you could have one person in charge of
the sign-up sheet and managing the line of participants, and the other explaining the rules and recording
scores. Give our small prizes to the winner of each round, but also be sure to recognize overall winners at the
end! Consider taking photos of the winners to publish in the school newspaper or post on social media.
www.RecycleMania.org
Recycl-ympic Game Ideas
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Phonebook Shotput. Throw a phonebook shotput style (i.e. put it in the palm of your hand without grasping it)
and throw it down a field with a measuring tape stretched out. Judge just by distance forward from the starting
line, or by distance AND accuracy (any distance you are off the line down the field gets subtracted from your
total distance).
Talking Point: Let students know that phonebooks are recyclable, and that they can unsubscribe
through StopYellowPages.com.
(Scrap) Paper Airplane: Gather stacks of used paper and give students two minutes to make them into paper
airplanes. The longest flight wins! See if you can beat University of Tennesse’s record of 200 feet!
Mouseballs. This is a slight adaptation of a game that has many names: Monkeyballs, ladder golf, etc. Purchase
or build a little ladder with three rungs on it. The game comes with a rope with balls attached at each end of
the 2-3 foot rope. Players stand back and throw the rope at the ladder to get it to wrap around one of the
rungs (three points for top rung, two points for middle rung, and one point for bottom rung). In this game, tie
two computer mice together instead. Each person gets 10 tosses with the mice, and highest score wins.
Talking Point: used electronics are recyclable! Let students know where they can drop off unwanted
electronics on campus.
Recycling Obstacle Course: Get creative with this one. Have competitors jump over small desk-side recycling
bins, pick up a bin full of paper or drag a 35 or 95-gallon cart full of recyclables and weave between bins, sort
items (recyclable vs. non-recyclable or paper vs. bottles and cans), or crawl through a cardboard tunnel. Fastest
time wins.
Plastic Bottle Events
Talking Point: Remember to remind players that plastic bottles and caps are recyclable. Caps are often made
from #5 polypropylene plastic, a material that can be recycled into new products. Also let them know that film
plastics, including dry cleaning and bread bags, are recyclable.
 Plastic Bottle Hammer Throw. Put a bunch of empty plastic bottles in a clear garbage bag, leaving a tail on the
end where people can hold onto it. Triple bag to ensure the “hammer” doesn’t explode. Make a circle on the
ground using a hula hoop or a rope, then have students spin around, and throw the bag of bottles like a typical
hammer throw. To make it more challenging, judge distance AND accuracy (draw a straight line and subtract
distance away from that line from the distance thrown.
 Recycling Free-throw. Create an arcade basketball– type game using a small recycling bin. At the University of
Tennessee, they attached a recycling bin with the bottom cut out to a giant wooden box for cardboard recycling (6’ tall, 42” wide, 48” deep with no top or face, just sides and back). Provide about 30 clean, empty plastic
bottles and give players 1 minute to make as many shots as possible.
 Plastic Bottle Skeeball. Think of a Skeeball game at the arcade, but you throw plastic bottles into small deskside bins, rather than rolling a ball. Use a terraced area, stadium steps, or even a small hill to place bins in an
ascending line, with the highest bin worth the most points. Give each student 10 throws with identical bottles,
and the student with the most points wins.
 Plastic Bottle Lawn Darts: We used the terraced area again where we put circles on the pads down the terraces, and had 10 identical plastic bottles and each progressive step down you got more points. People stand at
the top and toss the bottles down, trying to get them into circles we put on the steps. 10 points for the first
step, 20 for the next, 30 for the next step down etc. The bottle had to be at least 50% inside the circle to count.
 Bottle Cap in a Haystack: If you’d rather not use a real haystack, you can fill a box (the bigger the better) with
shredded paper and different colored bottle caps. Give students one minute to find as many bottle caps as possible, and assign different numbers of points to each different colored-cap. The more “rare” the color, the
more points it should be worth. Add up the point totals, and the student with the most points wins.
 Plastic Bottle Javelin: Throw a plastic bottle as far down the field as possible, measuring distance and accuracy.
Empty bottles won’t go far– consider filling bottles with water and giving bonus points if the bottle explodes!