Local schools collected nearly 15,000 phone books as part of an annual recycling contest sponsored by a government agency.

That's about 5,000 more phone books than were collected last year by the 25 participating schools in Forsyth County.

Chattahoochee Elementary collected the most phone books, with Big Creek Elementary coming in second and North Forsyth Middle in third place.

Keep Forsyth County Beautiful has organized the event since 2001. Tammy Wright, the agency's environmental program manager, said the "numbers were definitely up this year."

"The kids got really excited about this," Wright said. "You could tell they really, really enjoyed helping out."

She said participation in recycling events overall has been strong recently.

"Everybody's more conscious of the environment these days," she said. "People are realizing recycling is something we should all be doing."

Wright said many of the students collected phone books from their parents and neighbors.

"We are proud of the outstanding efforts made by all the schools and students who took part," she said.

According to its Web site, the mission of Keep Forsyth County Beautiful is to "improve beautification, reduce litter and encourage recycling."

Its next community event will be a Liberty Garden ceremony Sept. 11 at the Central Park Recreation Center, where the county honors public servants.