MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — An estimated 329 trillion pieces of microplastic are now floating in the surface waters of our oceans, and it’s getting worse.

Scientists say microplastic pollution is increasing across nearly three-quarters of the world’s marine areas by about 4.5% every year.

For four decades, the Ocean Conservancy has been fighting the scourge of plastic pollution, organizing a massive global cleanup on the same day every year.

South Florida’s is one of the largest in the world — and now is your chance to pitch in.

Saturday, Sept. 19, is the day for you to stand up, clean up and be part of a global movement.

“This is the largest volunteer opportunity for the environment in Miami-Dade County every year,” said Dave Doebler, co-founder and executive director of VolunteerCleanup.org.

The International Coastal Cleanup returns for its 41st year, mobilizing millions around the world to get trash out of beaches, waterways and the ocean.

“Thousands of cleanups take place all over the world,” said Sarah Weller, associate director of the International Coastal Cleanup at Ocean Conservancy. “And it’s all just about removing harmful debris and plastics out of the environment.”

Click here to sign up for the ICC

Launched in 1986 by the Ocean Conservancy, ICC has grown into the world’s largest single-day beach cleanup, with hundreds of thousands of volunteers across 110 countries showing love for oceans and raising awareness about the growing marine debris crisis that we see daily in our own backyard.

“So the flow is never ending. It’s constantly input from storm drains and street litter. When it rains, everything that happens at the street ends up in the bay,” Doebler said.

New FIU research reveals just how pervasive the plastic pollution problem has become. In some Biscayne Bay surface water samples, researchers found an average of 39 pieces of microplastics in just one liter of water.

“Those pose a threat called ingestion, where marine life, big and small, can consume those items, and then that’s filling their gut instead of the food that they actually need,” Weller said.

And what marine life eats ultimately ends up on our plates. Microplastics carry toxic chemicals through the food web, raising growing concerns about the impact on human health.

“It’s affecting our food supply. It’s not just unsightly. It’s not just affecting nature. It affects us,” Doebler said.

The problem is real, and the need to address it has never been more urgent. Just ask the volunteers who have come out before.

“Their takeaway is always, ‘Wow, I had no idea. It is so shocking to me to see all this trash. I can’t believe it,’” said Sophie Ringel, founder and executive director of Clean Miami Beach.

During last year’s ICC, 3,200 volunteers removed more than 26,000 pounds of debris from South Florida’s beaches, neighborhoods and Biscayne Bay in just one day, and that is here at home. The global impact is staggering.

“We know that nearly 20 million volunteers have come out over the four decades plus and removed over 400 million pounds of debris from coastlines and waterways worldwide,” Weller said.

The need is so great in South Florida that there are cleanup sites from Aventura to Homestead. Clean Miami Beach is helping VolunteerCleanup.org organize this year’s event and will host the VIP site on the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

“Real change happens within the community because nobody can do anything by themselves. So these cleanups are wonderful to bring the community together because only together we can implement long-term change,” Ringel said.

“I think we’ve surpassed a million volunteers probably before the pandemic years. So we’re hoping to get back to that level of participation, so that’s kind of a goal for us,” Weller said.

Ocean Conservancy released new numbers from last year’s cleanup: Volunteers collected more than 1.3 million plastic bottles and nearly 886,000 bottle caps worldwide.

Since the first cleanup in 1986, the movement has helped build the world’s largest database on marine debris, informing policies and strategies to fight this growing crisis.

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