In an effort to reduce the amount of trash left behind by homeless Austinites, the city of Austin, Texas, has launched a weekly trash collection pilot. During the six-month pilot, homeless Austinites can place their trash in violet-colored trash bags and bring them to one of four drop-off locations.

This pilot program was inspired by a collaboration between the city and its watershed department, which aims to improve the management of local encampments.

Fox 7 Austin has more details:

"I think we have all noticed that homelessness is increasing in Austin," said Taylor Cook, program manager for the City of Austin's service design lab.

Officials say with homelessness comes homeless encampments, and with those encampments comes trash. That is why the City of Austin is launching the violet bag pilot program to bring homeless Austinites weekly trash collection services.

"We wanna be able to leverage people who are experiencing homelessness, to help us solve those problems," Cook said.

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