Lake Tapps Trash Bash Volunteers Collect Hundreds of Pounds of Lakebed Debris

For Lake Tapps resident Jon Bodwell, eradicating over 300 pounds of garbage from the Lake Tapps lakebed last weekend just wasn’t enough.

“We only got a portion of it. Think of all the garbage that is still there,” said Bodwell. “Next year, we will be ready.”

The first annual brought over 150 residents to the edges of the lake, where they picked up broken glass, plastic bottles and other items discarded by lakegoers and boaters throughout the year.

Volunteers found a couple iPhones, a lawn chair and heavy chunks of steel at the bottom of the lake. The poor weather hindered some, but those who showed up got a good laugh during the rainy weekend outside.

“The kids were head-to-toe covered in mud, they loved it,” said Bodwell.

What surprised Bodwell the most was the amount of glass recovered from around Dike 3. From about 30 feet of exposed lakebed, about 5 gallons of broken glass was collected.

“I could have built a museum with all the broken beer bottles down there,” he said.

supplied the buckets and served as a meeting place for Trash Bash. After the weekend, volunteers wrote their names on the buckets and gave them back to be cleaned out and used again next year. Home Depot even offered to store them until next January.

“I can’t say enough how awesome Home Depot and the rest of the supporting businesses have been throughout all this,” said Bodwell.

He hopes to start a committee to plan next year’s event and hopes to turn Trash Bash into an annual event. It’s the kind of thing that local businesses could support with fun incentives and high school kids could use as a volunteer credit, he said.

Bodwell’s wife, Shannon, also sees it as a great opportunity for neighbors to get together.

“It’s about doing something good for the community, but also coming together and making friends,” she said.