Beginning Monday and ending Nov. 16, 23 Greek chapters will participate in the Green House Competition to determine which is the best recycling team on campus.

The competition, organized and sponsored by the student group Community Organized Recycling Efforts is the group’s first project since it was founded at the beginning of this school year. CORE is focused on improving recycling efforts in Champaign by starting with the community. It believes starting with the organized Greek system will be the best way to bring attention to the low awareness of recycling options in Champaign.

“The main reason we began with the Greek system is it’s the most organized system on campus,” said Cassie Carroll, senior in LAS and co-director of CORE. “Instead of starting with apartments which each have different systems and rules, we thought the Greek system would be the easiest to run with this program.”

Eleven sororities and 12 fraternities are matched, with each team receiving a CORE coach who will communicate with the selected group representatives from each Greek chapter to help it in the contest.

“I’m here to facilitate the competition for the Greek houses,” said Maddie Parro, senior in LAS and CORE coach. “I’m going to see how they’re getting along and give helpful suggestions on how to increase recycling. I’m also going to be at the recycling site to help measure and weigh.”

The winning team will be determined through different components, including creating a promotional banner for each house, creativity in the reuse of recyclables and the overall amount of material recycled, said Mara Eisenstein, senior in ACES and CORE competition coordinator.

“We have a point system for paper, plastic and aluminum,” Eisenstein said. “We’re counting the material by 10 pounds each, paper three points, aluminum two points and plastic one point.”

CORE worked with Tim Hoss, coordinator of campus waste management at the University Waste Transfer Station, to determine the value it would place on different types of recyclables.

It also coordinated drop off times with the teams and facility for when it will weigh and measure the amounts of recycling each team brings.

The team with the most points at the end of the competition will be rewarded with a party sponsored by CORE and Greek Community Services. The winning team will also be presented a Greek Oscar.

“The Panhellenic and Interfraternity Council host the Greek Oscars every year, rewarding Greek houses for good things they’ve done throughout the year,” Carroll said. “They are dedicating an Oscar to the winning sorority and fraternity.”

Anthony Reynoso, senior in ACES and recycling chair for Kappa Delta Rho Fraternity, said his chapter is looking forward to becoming more active in recycling.

“We’ve actually had a recycling bin in our house for about a year prior to this competition,” Reynoso said. “We thought this would be a great way to step up recycling.”

CORE hopes this competition will spark a desire among the chapters to continue recycling after the competition ends. “Our goal is to implement recycling permanently in their houses for next semester,” Carroll said.