"To date, the 38-year-old Miami man has plucked, bagged, heaved and hauled more than 17 tons of trash, mostly from the islands around Biscayne Bay. "You name it, any item you can name, and I have found it in the mangroves," he says. "Convection ovens, microwave ovens, mattresses, sofas, sets of plates and dishes. Used diapers. Those are really disgusting.""
"It's a steep drop into a mangrove forest brimming with three feet of brackish water over thick, twisty tree roots, but Andrew Otazo has no trouble navigating the descent. He scrambles down the craggy incline like a camo-clad Spider-Man, using branches and thick vines. At the bottom, Otazo finds his treasure: trash. But every shoe, bottle, car battery, cooler and other piece of garbage Otazo removes from the mangroves reclaims space for what should be there: bird nesting grounds and fish rookeries."
Andrew Otazo routinely descends steep mangrove slopes around Virginia Key to retrieve trash trapped in roots and brackish water. He has removed more than 17 tons of debris from islands in Biscayne Bay, collecting everything from shoes and bottles to convection ovens, mattresses and used diapers. Each removed item reclaims habitat used by nesting birds and fish rookeries. Otazo conducts weekly cleanups and targets mangroves encircling Virginia Key. He urges residents to pressure elected officials to reduce plastic pollution and modernize waste systems that funnel street trash into the ocean.
Read at The Washington Post
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