SAN ANTONIO – Thirty years ago, a tradition started in San Antonio — a weekend of volunteers putting on gloves and picking up trash around parks and waterways.
Since then, 50,000 Basura Bash volunteers have cleaned up 1.6 million pounds of trash from waterways in the city, according to Charles Blank, executive director of River Aid San Antonio.
Last year, volunteers collected 76,000 pounds in a single day.
Basura Bash will be held this year on Feb. 22. There will also be a new “Basura After-Bash” community fair on Feb. 23 at Brackenridge Park and a benefit dinner for River Aid SA to support programming year-round.
River Aid SA partnered with a private company in November to install booms to collect trash in creeks, pulling out 800 pieces of trash, Blank said.
“Out of those 800, 650 were broken pieces of Styrofoam,” Blank said. “So this data from these booms are telling us one thing very quickly — these Styrofoam, these single-use products, are destroying our waterway. And it’s something that we could easily fix with a behavior change or possibly a corporate decision.”
Blank said they hope to have the booms installed in about 10 to 15 waterways in the city. Data collected to determine which types of trash are making it to the river and creeks could mean changes for the entire community in the future.
There are 25 Basura Bash collection sites set up, and volunteers are still needed at some locations.
For more information on Basura Bash, click here.
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