Andrew Otazo was so furious about the trash in Miami’s “magical” mangroves that he started a one-man mission, hauling over 17 tons of it out himself.
The 38-year-old Cuban-American revisited the protected coastal forests he loved as a kid. He wasn’t looking for a fight. “I went in looking for peace and serenity, but I came out furious,” he told The Washington Post. “Literally everywhere I stepped, I stepped on trash.”
And the problem he found is staggering. We’re talking everything from mattresses and convection ovens to “really disgusting” used diapers and even a quinceañera dress.
Otazo’s discovery is a local snapshot of a global crisis. According to EarthDay.org, over 2 billion metric tons (over 2.2 billion tons) of municipal waste are thrown away globally every year. Worse, an estimated 19 to 23 million tons of plastic waste enter aquatic environments annually, choking wildlife and leaching “forever chemicals.”
So, to make this invisible problem impossible to ignore, Otazo, an endurance athlete, did something wild.
In 2019, he ran the Miami Marathon while carrying a 35-pound bag of trash he’d collected from the mangroves. It was a grueling 26.2-mile journey that took him 9 hours and 50 minutes.
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“It was agony,” he recalled. “It destroyed me.”
The stunt worked. It landed his story and the trash-filled backpack in the HistoryMiami Museum. “I never, ever in a million years thought people would pay attention to me because I’m picking up trash,” Otazo said.
His background makes him an unlikely environmental warrior. He has degrees in political science, interned at the U.S. State Department, and worked at Harvard. But after returning to Miami, he felt he had to “reinvent” himself.
He started his one-man cleanup, a “hard, and a little crazy” task he performs alone, heading into the brackish water with a machete and bug spray.
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But he’s not just a trash collector. He’s an advocate. Otazo is now actively persuading fellow Floridians to tell their elected officials to update antiquated waste systems that dump street trash into the ocean.
His effort shows how one person’s actions can put pressure on governments to fix the larger problems creating the pollution. For those inspired by his work, there is plenty of great advice on how to take local climate action.
Otazo knows he can’t be the only one.
“If you’re relying on me, just one guy picking up trash, we’re doomed,” he said. “But if what I’m doing shows other people the problem, and they agree we need to work toward a solution, that’s the idea.”
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