The International Coastal Cleanup is back for its 41st year, bringing hundreds of thousands of volunteers together across 110 countries to clean up coastlines.

In South Florida, International Coastal Cleanup Miami-Dade is the third-largest cleanup in the U.S. and the largest single-day environmental community service event in Miami each year.

Nearly 4,000 residents are taking part in the effort to clean up the shorelines.

“Today we are at the Julia Tuttle Causeway,” said Dave Doebler, executive director of VolunteerCleanup.org. “This is one of 75 cleanups happening all over Miami-Dade, organized by VolunteerCleanup.org, but led by individual community leaders and nonprofits and government in all of the locations all the way from Aventura down to Homestead.”

At a cleanup near the bay, volunteers found plenty of plastic litter, including bottle caps.

“Last year we picked up 4,000 pounds of trash right here next to the bay which is so shocking and sad,” said Sophie Ringel, executive director of Clean Miami Beach. “But it’s also good that we’re getting the community together, that we’re reconnecting with nature and setting an example of how to do better.”

Plastic remains a major concern along Biscayne Bay. A recent study by FIU estimates that 18 billion microplastics pollute the bay.

“Plastic is awful. There’s no reason for plastic water bottles. You can use a recyclable, a reusable, a refillable one,” said Miami Beach Mayor Eileen Higgins. “They break down into microplastics. Those are embedded in our body, they found them in our brains. They’re in the water. They’re in the fish we eat.”

“We cannot be ruining Biscayne Bay nor our health with plastic,” Higgins said.

While cleanups remove tons of trash from the bay, organizers and county officials say keeping that trash from reaching the water in the first place is critical.

Miami-Dade County is pushing two master plans, one focused on stormwater and another focused on waste.

“The water flows in our city from west to east and empties into the bay and those areas,” said Damien Pardo. “So the plan is a way of making sure that that is draining properly and filtering properly. So when the water reaches the coastline, it’s clear water.”

The county’s Zero Waste Master Plan includes 31 strategies.

“On our website we have the entire Zero Waste Master Plan listed there. All 31 strategies that are there. We’re working right now on activating those 31 strategies,” said Dr. Aneisha Daniels.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava said reducing, recycling and reusing waste can help move the county toward its goal of zero waste.

“So a combination of reducing, recycling, and reuse of this waste is going to be close to zero waste,” Levine-Cava said.

Daniels said education is a key part of the effort.

“It’s about outreach and education. Educating our residents, educating our kids, so they have a better understanding of their responsibilities as learn how it relates to manages waste,” she said.

Education is also a foundation of the International Coastal Cleanup.

“We’re building a grassroots movement around the marine debris crisis,” Doebler said. “This cannot be solved by government, by business, or individuals alone.”

Levine-Cava said hands-on education can make a difference.

“People really are understanding and education is the key,” she said. “And by the way, hands-on education. It’s not just classroom learning which is very important. It’s actually going out and seeing it with your own eyes.”

Higgins said the goal is to eventually make coastal cleanups unnecessary.

“And if we all do our part, hopefully we’ll work ourselves out of a job and we won’t have to be cleaning up our coastlines anymore,” she said.

The message from volunteers was simple: “Don’t Trash Our Treasure.”

This year’s International Coastal Cleanup is breaking records, collecting more than 26,000 pounds of trash from South Florida’s shores.

Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.