For over three decades, the Tarrant Regional Water District has led one of the largest volunteer-driven environmental cleanups in North Texas called the “Trash Bash.” This biannual event brings in thousands of volunteers to remove litter from local lakes, rivers and reservoirs, aiming to help preserve the region’s waterways while creating community engagement.
The first Trash Bash event was in 1990 and focused on cleaning up the Trinity River and Eagle Mountain Lake. Over the years, it has expanded to fit all TRWD-managed waterways, including Lake Bridgeport, Marine Creek Lake and Richland-Chambers Reservoir.
The driving force behind the Trash Bashes are coordinators Hermilo Munez and Robbie Tompkins.
Each year, TRWD hosts two sets of Trash Bash events, one in the spring and another in the fall. However, the Trinity River cleanup is held both in the spring and in the fall.
“The Trinity River, we do that one twice a year,” Munez said. “Because this is our largest service area. The Trinity River we get maybe annually over 10,000 volunteers total.”
Meanwhile, lake cleanups, like Eagle Mountain Lake and Lake Bridgeport, are purposefully scheduled in different seasons to increase community engagement across the district.
The Trash Bash has grown into more than just a cleanup effort — it has become a huge community tradition. Tompkins, who has been involved for over 30 years, credits the event’s success to the dedicated volunteers.
“People tell their family and friends to come out,” Munez. “And, of course, it’s the ones that have done it for years and continue to do it as well.”
To encourage participation, TRWD employs a range of outreach strategies, including newspaper advertisements, billboards on highways, school flyers and online promotions. High school kids even play a significant role in the Trash Bash events.
“We get a lot of volunteers from Saginaw High School kids,” Tompkins said. “Those kids like to do it. It is a good opportunity for student groups and organizations to get their community service hours.”
After the big clean up, volunteers can interact with local fire and law enforcement departments and explore the watershed education trailer, which is a mobile trailer that educates the public about the watersheds and how to protect them. The after party is a celebration for all the volunteers’ hard work done that day.
A major part of the Trash Bash is the partnership with the Literati app. This app allows volunteers to document and categorize litter collected, providing data on the pollution patterns.
“This app is the future of cleanups,” Munez said. “Each person, through their phone, can now document litter data. We’ve started amassing data over a lot of litter that people pick up at all of our waterways. We’ve amassed litter data from over 52,000 individual’s litter pieces. We try to publish that data and tell people here’s what you’ve helped pick up.”
TRWD tracks these numbers to assess the event’s impact and continuously upgrade its approach to the waterways.
Looking ahead, TRWD wants to increase volunteer turnout at new cleanup sites, particularly at Marine Creek Lake and Richland Chambers Reservoir. Beyond picking up trash, TRWD wants to create long-term environmental responsibility. Munez hopes this will increase the program’s environmental impact over the next five years.
“Something we like to preach about is we are stewards creating more stewards,” Munez said. “But not only are we trying to give these communities an opportunity to contribute to their neighborhoods. They use these waterways recreationally. It all comes back to benefit themselves. We’re hoping that they become not just stewards who are trying to help prevent litter wherever they live, but hopefully this also teaches, especially the younger generation, how to be a good public citizen.”
Whether you’re a student earning service hours, a family looking for a meaningful weekend activity or a resident invested in preserving local waterways, Trash Bash offers a way to make a difference.
To learn more about upcoming events and how to get involved, visit www.trwd. com/trashbash/.
