Video Game Aims to Teach about Recycling

As part of Creation Care Week at Westmont, staff members Joel Patterson, recycling pickup administrator, and Phil Walton, Web content editor, created an online educational video game about recyclable materials. Rudy’s Recycling Roundup was launched April 7. Sophomore philosophy major Daniel Clotfelter had the high score when the competition ended on Earth Day and won a gift certificate to local restaurant Silvergreens.

Patterson approached Walton in the fall of 2008 with the idea to create a video game as an ongoing effort to find new and creative ways to better inform the Westmont community about what can and cannot be recycled. “Many people on campus are unaware that most disposable coffee cups are non-recyclable,“ Patterson says.

Walton, the game’s designer, uses recognizable Westmont backgrounds and themes throughout, while Patterson wrote all the music. The object of the game is to help Rudy, the recycle bin, collect as many recyclable as possible while avoiding non-recyclables. The game keeps track of player’s high scores in hopes that competition will spur more playing.

The day after the game was released, Westmont’s Physical Plant Web site was the most viewed departmental Web page on campus, helping students become more aware of the other services the department offers. Since then, the game has been played more than 5,000 times.

The game can be found at: http://www.westmont.edu/rudy