Purple trash bags will start appearing on Tacoma’s Eastside. Will homeless use them?
Purple trash bags might start popping up on Tacoma’s Eastside in the next several weeks.
The city is piloting a project that schedules regular trash pickup at a homeless encampment on a city-managed property near M Street and Portland Avenue.
The purple bags distinguish them from other cleanup programs or general use.
City staff say it has been encountering a significant increase in human waste, litter, hazardous materials and other harmful debris associated with homeless encampments on city-owned open space restoration sites. The restoration sites are part of the city’s Open Space Program meant to conserve open space and urban forest lands.
The Purple Bag Pilot Project is intended to limit the impacts of improperly disposed waste by providing a way for people living in encampments to dispose of their trash at designated drop-off locations.
“It’s both for environmental benefit and for the health and safety of the public,” said Angela Gallardo, environmental programs manager for the city of Tacoma.
The city’s Environmental Services Department is collaborating with the Neighborhood and Community Services Department on the project, with 5,000 bags ordered, Gallardo said.
The city’s Homeless Outreach Team started passing out the bags on Tuesday.
“The pickup of the bags will be weekly. They’ll let the encampment residents know which day the pickup will come by,” Gallardo said.
In addition to distribution and collection of purple trash bags, containers for sharp materials such as needles will be available. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is also being distributed to individuals experiencing homelessness on city-owned passive open spaces, which are typically undeveloped and covered with vegetation. Passive open space properties comprise approximately 488 acres of city-owned forests, wetlands, streams, and habitat areas, according to the city’s Open Space Program.
“The ES Passive Open Space Program is tasked with conserving, activating, and managing these open space and urban forest lands, but this growing concern for environmental and human health is making this conservation work more difficult and, in some cases, impossible,” according to a city Q&A on the program.
Start-up costs for the pilot program total around $7,000 and will use CARES Act funds. Gallardo hopes the project will help the city save money, since the trash pickups will be on a more regular schedule. The city is partnering with Cascadia Cleaning and Removal to coordinate distribution and collection of the bags and equipment.
Garbage is often a complaint from residents living nearby homeless encampments. Meanwhile, people living in the encampments say they have nowhere to throw their trash and ask for places to do so, as was the case at the Yakima Avenue and Eighth Street encampment in Central Tacoma.
Tacoma isn’t the first city to embark on a “purple bag” pilot program. Seattle started a similar effort several years ago. Austin, Texas, launched a purple bag pilot in 2019.
If the program goes well — in other words, the city sees less trash near the encampments — the city will consider expanding the program in spring 2021.
A mailer will be sent out to about 300 residential homes located near the open space site to inform people about the project and provide contact information for questions, comments or concerns, according to the city.
People can contact TacomaFIRST 311 if a purple bag is found outside of a designated drop-off location for a pickup to be scheduled.
More information can be found at cityoftacoma.org/purplebags.
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 5:05 AM.
