Justice may be colorblind, but in Hyattsville it's definitely green.

Or at least that's what a group of seven students are trying to sort out.

Green Justice is a group from the University of Maryland concerned with solving Hyattsville's trash problem. Last year, the city began a trash collection pilot program, and trash pickup was reduced from twice weekly to once weekly in hopes of reducing trash around town.

City officials and staff are soon to evaluate the program.

With help from the Hyattsville Environmental Committee, Green Justice has been surveying residents and conducting focus groups.

"Our Green Justice team was created with the goal of analyzing waste management habits, attitudes and perceptions, focusing on thoughts about recycling and consumption," said group member Najeff Waseem. "Specifically, we wanted to know why people recycle, what makes them do it and ultimately how can we help [the] city with its goal to reduce waste."

The project was formed through the Gemstone Research Program at the University of Maryland. Gemstone brings together students of all majors to perform a four-year research study on whatever the students choose.

Waseem said his team chose Hyattsville because it's close to campus, and because the group had some city contacts, including Mayor William Gardiner and UMd. librarian Alan Mattlage.

Although Green Justice isn't yet sure how its plan will sprout legs, Waseem said the group is moving forward with collecting data and compiling surveys.

"Our primary forms of data collection are the city's solid waste tonnages, recycling tonnages from Prince George's County, and surveys, focus groups and interviews from members of the community," he said.

"We hope to synthesize all the data to draft recommendations that can be used … to help the city's initiative to reduce trash and increase recycling. Currently, we are still in the data collection phase and are trying to obtain at least 100 surveys from Hyattsville residents."

As of last month, the group had 65 surveys completed.

In addition, the implementation of Hyattsville's trash pilot program gave the Green Justice project depth, Waseem said, because they were able to study residents' recycling and waste management habits, as well as study how the program worked.

Green Justice hopes to have the data collection finished in spring and the analysis done by summer. To take their survey, click here.