As part of this school year’s Future City Competition, students will be asked to think a lot about trash. Specifically, piles of trash waiting to be dumped into landfills, incinerated or hauled off, and what a better process might look like.

The theme of this year’s Future City Competition, “Waste Not, Want Not,” asks students to design waste management systems focused on the four R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle and rot. Registration for the competition — a national, project-based learning experience for middle school students — is open until Oct. 31.

Working in a team with an educator and engineer mentor, students research, design and build their future city. Projects will include a virtual city design (using SimCity software); a 1,500-word city description; a scale model of the city (built with recycled materials); and a short presentation to a panel of STEM professionals.

Students present their projects at regional competitions in January. The Great Plains Regional Competition, which is made up of Kansas and Missouri students, will be held Jan. 23, 2016, at Kansas University. The regional winner will compete at the national finals in Washington, D.C., in February.

For more information or to register, visit futurecity.org or Future City’s Facebook page.