AUSTIN (KXAN) — The City of Austin wants to bring in some new ideas to get trash out of local waterways.

At Tuesday’s work session, the City’s Watershed Protection revealed details about the trash found in local creeks. This was part of a study launched two years ago.

One of the biggest takeaways was roughly three-quarters of all the trash found was in 10% of the area. Single-use plastic was the most common type of trash.

Watershed Protection found encampments were the most commonly observed source of trash.

However, the data found the range the trash would move or the intensity was similar to other sources, including illegal dumping by people just driving up to an area.

Andrew Clamann with Austin Watershed Protection gave a presentation on the issue during the meeting, and he said the issue of trash in creeks is a community problem.

“Although encampment is something that is obvious and salient out there, people think about that when they are thinking about trash in creeks,” Clamann said. “We have a lot of work to do on sources of trash in our creeks, and it’s more of a community problem.”

The presentation also touched on ideas to help clean up the creeks. In addition to trash traps and booms, they also brought up programs from other cities such as free kayak rentals for people cleaning up trash and bringing it back to the dock.