Action of the Week, February 8, 2026

Be Inspired by Andrew Otazo’s Mangrove Cleanup

We love stories about the difference that one person can make. This week, we are highlighting the physically heroic efforts of Andrew Otazo, who, over the past eight years, has removed over 42,000 pounds of trash from South Florida’s mangrove swamps.

A Cuban American and native Miamian, Otazo is a public relations expert, policy advisor, and author of the 2023 book, The Miami Creation Myth, who spent two years at West Point before earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the University of Miami and segueing into local entrepreneurship.

In interviews, Otazo describes his nature cleanup efforts as a response to having grown “tired of not seeing anyone else address the problem.” His trash removal crusade began “in a completely solitary mode”—backbreaking work that involves “methodically picking up trash and placing it in bags for hours on end.” The detritus is wide-ranging: plastic bottles, five-gallon buckets, tennis balls, glass and metal shards, vehicle tires, crab traps, marine rope, and other consumer and industrial remnants.

When Otazo began posting footage on social media, local organizations and Miami’s media took notice, and he began leading middle- and high-schoolers on group cleanups. Deciding that he wanted to educate the public in even more dramatic fashion, he completed the 2019 Miami Marathon while carrying a 30-pound bag of swamp trash on his back, a physically challenging effort that helped raise thousands of dollars for a local organization, Miami Waterkeeper.

In 2024, Otazo shared his criteria for personal and professional success, stating,

“The three most valuable skillsets I picked up were empathy, grit, and flexibility. Those still early in their journeys should expect to be disappointed. Failure is a painful and necessary process to learn from mistakes, take stock of your options, and chart a new path forward.”

As a self-described “policy and politics wonk,” Otazo soberly characterizes his mangrove cleanup efforts as “Sisyphean,” emphasizing the importance of pressuring policymakers for systemic-level change. After the 2019 marathon, he said,

“[W]e do not have good data on how much trash currently exists in our waterways or its origin…. Once we know where most of the pollution originates … we can place a price tag on [the] cost of doing nothing…. Quantifying the damage will allow local politicians to invest in targeted mitigation options…. Otherwise, I’ll be stuck cleaning the same patch of mangroves the rest of my life without making a meaningful impact.”

However, we think he may be underestimating the ripple effects of his “drop in the bucket” labors—and the powerful example of empathy, grit, and flexibility set into motion. If each of us draws on similar qualities and takes steps to clean up—and come clean—those drops will rapidly multiply.