Ok, recyclemaniacs, it’s time to pitch in again — to pitch in your bottles, cans and paper, that is.

Beginning Sunday, Feb 5, more than 600 schools nationwide will compete against their peers in RecylcleMania, an eight-week contest that tracks recycling and trash collection data.

Institutions are ranked based on recyclables per capita, total weight of recyclables, least amount of trash per capita and highest recycling rate. The overall winner gets the Grand Champion award — and bragging rights in the world of college sustainability.

“RecycleMania is a fun way of mobilizing the Temple community to focus on recycling and reducing waste,” said Sandra McDade, director of Temple’s Office of Sustainability. “Our goal is to generate momentum that will keep sustainability issues top-of-mind year-round for students, faculty and staff.”

This is Temple’s sixth year of competition, and organizers hope to rally support to again push the university to the top of its division. Last year, Temple dominated the Atlantic-10, earning first place in two of the four major categories. Temple snagged first place in the Gorilla category for gross tonnage, collecting 414,640 pounds of recycled material — 107,444 pounds more than the next closest A-10 competitor, George Washington University. And Temple also beat GWU for first place in the Waste Minimization category.

The RecycleMania committee — which comprises university administrators and members of Temple Student Government, Students for Environmental Action and the Residential Life Green Team — is hoping to build off of last year’s success and has increased its total collection goal for 2012 to 415,000 pounds.

To put Temple over the top, contest organizers are planning a slate of activities designed to nurture friendly intra-campus competition and rally the community to action. The campaign officially kicks off at the Liacouras Center Wednesday, Feb. 1, at the 7 p.m. men’s basketball game against Fordham University.

Fans seated in the Cherry and White student cheering section will receive “Mean Green Recycling Machine” t-shirts, designed by School of Communications and Theater senior Hannah Webster. Special promotional events will be held during time-outs, and volunteer members of the Temple Green Team will circulate at half-time to collect aluminum cans and plastic bottles.

Other RecycleMania events will include:

• A RecycleMania pep rally on Thursday, January 26th from 4-7 p.m. in the Howard Gittis Student Center to promote recycling, waste minimization and the upcoming men’s basketball game against St. Joseph’s. This rally will feature carnival games hosted by members of the Green Council, a video gaming competition in the Underground and a movie screening in the Reel.

• A paper purge drive to encourage university departments to clean out or shred unneeded paper records during the duration of the RecyleMania contest, with special effort during spring break, March 4-11. (Contact Marshall Budin in the Office of Facilities Management at hmbudin@temple.edu or 1-7396 for information about shredding and bulk paper removal.)

• Swap tables, positioned at schools and colleges on Temple’s Main and Health Sciences campuses during the week of January 22nd, to promote the reuse of goods.

• Residence hall competitions, with contests by floor and by facility.

Eligible recyclable materials that Temple collects are paper, including catalogs, books, junk mail, magazines, newspapers, phone books and all varieties of office paper; bottles and cans, including Nos. 1 and 2 plastics, aluminum cans, glass bottles and jars; and cardboard, including boxes, boxboard and chipboard.

RecyleMania runs through March 31. Temple’s results will be reported weekly at www.temple.edu/sustainability