Students at Mary Baldwin College are picking through trash to pick out recyclables.

Last year, the crew collected more than 6,000 pounds of recycling, and this year, they're aiming even higher.

MBC is competing against 600 other colleges to see who can recycle the most. It's called Recyclemania.

Every week until April 2, the students will weigh the garbage and recycling produced on campus, but they're going beyond just bottles and cans.

Students say some of the biggest waste comes from leftover cafeteria food, which they're now turning to compost and sending to a farm.

Last year, the group emptied campus trash cans on the lawn and sorted through them, pulling out recyclables and demonstrating to students just how much is wasted.

"I think it's important because of how much waste we do accumulate, and people don't realize it's not just stuff you throw away in your rooms. It's in the academic buildings, in the dining halls. It's not just paper trash, but all the food that you don't eat. It's quite a bit because of all these people that live on campus as well, we accumulate so much," says Recyclemania organizer Aimee Sandford.

They say winning the competition would be great, but more than that, they want to make recycling a habit for all students on campus.

© Copyright 2013 WHSV / Gray Television Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.