Thousands of volunteers are expected to collect garbage along the banks of the Trinity River Saturday for the third annual Spring Trash Bash.
The Tarrant Regional Water District has held a similar event every fall for the past 25 years, but the spring effort is relatively new. It has proven to be effective, though, as volunteers collected about 5½ tons of trash last spring.
“This city, this community, really takes pride in the river,” TRWD's Alicia Crosswhite said.
Crosswhite spoke Thursday in the Downtown Fort Worth lobby of the TRWD office while surrounded by thousands of red bags. The bags are for each of the volunteers and include a T-shirt, garbage bags and a pair of gloves.
“This still probably won’t be enough [bags],” she said.
Recent rain in the Fort Worth area has washed a considerable amount of trash into the Trinity. Denton's Cindy Metcalf, who travels to Fort Worth to exercise along the river, said the trash is easy to spot.
“It’s going to push me away or it’s going to make me not invite other people to come be part of the restaurants, or the shops, or the experience to just walk or bike," she said. "So I’d love to see it gone."
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Phil King, a cyclist from Weatherford, also comes to Fort Worth every week to bike on the trails that meander along the banks of the Trinity.
“I think they are giving an effort,” King said about city and TRWD staff. “But it’s just that some people don’t care. They don’t like to take care of their stuff.”
