Officials with Austin's Solid Waste Services expected to receive offbeat ideas when they asked residents to suggest a new name for the city department.

They didn't expect the top online vote-getter to be Fred Durst Society of the Humanities and Arts , followed by, among others, Ministry of Filth , Hufflepuff , Lemon Party and Keep Austin Wasted .

"We knew we'd get some creative names, this being Austin," spokeswoman Jennifer Herber said. "Boy, (Austinites) did not disappoint."

The department wants a name that better reflects the variety of services it provides, which includes trash collection, recycling, street sweeping and litter abatement. It first held focus groups and settled on three rather plain finalist names: Austin Resource Collection & Recovery Utility , Austin Recycling & Waste Reduction Department and Austin Resource Recovery Utility .

Then it asked the public to vote for those names or add others to an online poll. A local college student suggested naming the department after Durst -- lead singer of the rock group Limp Bizkit -- and the online poll went viral, Herber said.

The Durst idea had more than 29,000 votes Thursday , the final day of voting. National media outlets, such as NPR and MTV, have picked up the story. Even Durst has weighed in on his Twitter account, saying: "I want to thank all of you who are helping me in Austin. I hope we win."

The city's original three ideas rank far behind, along with dozens of others, such as Hippy Scum; Waste not, want not.; Bubbleface; and Leslie's Shopping Cart.

"At first, we thought, 'We need to take some of these down'" from the website, Herber said. "But the whole point is to change the name to something progressive. We're not a stuffy city department. "

The department isn't obligated to choose any of the public's ideas, and will recommend a name soon to City Manager Marc Ott , who will have the final say, Herber said. City officials will announce the new name sometime around Earth Day, April 22.

 -statesman.com