Afroz Shah is a lawyer in Mumbai who grew up swimming in the ocean near the beautiful Versova Beach, close to his city. It was very clean in his childhood, and he used to play there on the white sand.

But when he came back from university, he had lost his beach. It had been drowned in almost six feet of plastic, people no longer swam in the ocean, and Radley turtles no longer nested on the beach.

In October 2015, he began picking up trash from the beach every Sunday morning. At first, it was just him and a neighbor, and then he began recruiting others to join in. Word spread and with help from social media, more volunteers got involved.