NORTH BAY VILLAGE, Fla. – This Saturday, the spotlight will shine bright on shorelines, beaches and waterways all over the world as thousands of volunteers roll up their sleeves for International Coastal Cleanup Day.

Miami-Dade County boasts the third-largest of these global cleanup efforts, thanks to two South Florida residents who saw the problem and resolved to grow this important mission of protecting our most valuable resource.

Married power couple environmentalists Dave Doebler and Dara Schoenwald are the co-founders of the organization VolunteerCleanup.org, a website they both created to amplify neighborhood cleanups happing all over Miami-Dade after noticing the endless flow of litter polluting our bay.

“Every Sunday, I would just go paddling in Biscayne Bay, and I would just notice all this trash,” Doebler reflected.

Added Schoenwald: “And I just see his kayak, and it is loaded down and strapped down with all kinds of plastic. And my first thought was, like, we either need to get him a bigger boat or a lot more help.”

That’s how Volunteer Cleanup was born. The website went live in 2014 and since then, South Florida has stepped up big time. From its inception, the heart of the mission has always been the restoration and protection of Biscayne Bay.

In fact, right before our interview, the Don’t Trash Our Treasure team found Doebler and Schoenwald diligently scooping up plastic bits from their North Bay Village backyard as a hungry manatee and her calf munched on some seagrass that had floated to the surface mixed in with those toxic ingredients.

“This is why we do this,” Doebler said as he fished out the litter. “We’ve got this glorious gem, and it’s on life support right now. It’s in really, really poor shape.”

Over the past 10 years, Doebler and Schoenwald have helped launch over 100 clean-up non-profits like Clean Miami Beach and Clean This Beach Up. Together, these 100 non-profits have recruited over 35,000 volunteers who collectively have picked up over 800,000 pounds of debris from South Florida neighborhoods and shorelines.

“Since 2020, we’ve removed over 20 thousand pounds from (the MacArthur Causeway) alone,” said Clean This Beach Up Founder MJ Algarra.

Said Doebler: “We’ve got people who are leading one cleanup a month…we’ve got people who are leading a cleanup every single week. Some have started nonprofits because of it, but it all starts with attending their very first cleanup.”

Like the more than 70 clean-ups Doebler and Schoenwald have helped organize for this year’s International Coastal Cleanup Day. The worldwide effort was launched by the Ocean Conservancy back in 1986 to remove trash from our beaches and waterways.

It’s a mission that Doebler and Schoenwald have supersized locally since they took over coordination of the Miami-Dade ICC clean-ups in 2014.

“We’re just super proud of how it’s grown,” said Schoenwald. “You know, over the 10 years, from those 20 or so cleanups to a massive movement of 70 and all of the partners that we’ve been able to include. When they spend the time picking it up, something is going to shift that hopefully makes them make different decisions.”

“It provides an eye-opening experience where people can see firsthand just how much trash is in here,” Doebler reflected.

Decisions we make as consumers, reducing or eliminating single-use plastics whenever we can, realizing that every choice we make leaves a footprint.

“Plastics you can see, and once you see it you can’t unsee it,” said Doebler. “Almost everybody will attend another cleanup…almost everybody will say that they will reduce single-use plastics.”

And you might be surprised just how good it makes you feel.

“People say that was a lot of fun, and that always surprises me that people enjoy the experience of picking up trash,” said Schoenwald. “But I think it gives people a good feeling that they’re learning something and that they’re participating actively in the betterment of our environment.”

Since the first International Coastal Cleanup Day 38 years ago, more than 18 million volunteers have collected more than 380 million pounds of trash.

This year will be the largest ever in Miami-Dade County, with 70 clean-ups happening from Greynolds Park down to Homestead that can host up to 5,000 volunteers. If you’d like to be one of them, visit the Volunteer Cleanup website to sign up.