Aerial footage shows amazing group of people working against a growing issue: 'It takes a team…'

Incredible aerial footage of a beach-cleaning group is demonstrating how many hands made light work while putting a dent in a significant problem.

A 14-second video posted by TikToker Kahi Pacarro (@plasticsurf) in 2022 begins with a shot of a substantial pile of trash — including discarded plastic — littering the otherwise gorgeous greenery surrounding a beach. 

As the camera pans up and around, though, the cleanup crew is seen forming a human chain to pass pieces of waste down a long line, saving people from carrying each object over uneven terrain. 

"It takes a team to clean a beach, but it's gonna take more to stop it from ever ending up there in the first place," Pacarro wrote. 

According to the U.N. Environment Programme, "In the early 2000s, the amount of plastic waste we generated rose more in a single decade than it had in the previous 40 years." 

Now, per the UNEP, roughly 440 million tons of plastic is produced each year, much of it to be used once, and some of it doesn't initially make it to landfills. 

Sadly, this has been reflected both on land and in the water, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature noting that at least 14 million tons of the toxin-containing material makes its way into oceans annually. 

Some of that plastic gets washed onto beaches, or marine animals consume it after mistaking the material for food, often leading to their deaths. 

Some individuals have begun repurposing empty containers or saying goodbye to single-use water bottles to reduce their use of plastic, most of which is made from dirty energy that produces planet-warming pollution, per the United Nations.  

A number of organizations and research groups are also on the case, developing new systems and technologies to remove the waste from our environment.  

This TikTok, meanwhile, speaks to the power of community — and how taking action doesn't have to be a lonely or overwhelming endeavor.

"Thank you guys…you're hero of [the environment]," one commenter wrote.

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