Nearly 50 volunteers spent part of their Saturday cleaning up the Arroyo Colorado. In just three hours, they removed more than 3,600 pounds of debris.

Aboard a boat, the Ramos family crossed the Arroyo Colorado with one goal in mind — to remove as much trash as possible.

What they found along the shoreline was more than they expected.

"Lots of trash and it just keeps accumulating. It's different types of trash than I expected, but definitely not good for the environment," Natalie Ramos said.

Floaties, tires, cans and even furniture littered the banks. But plastic was by far the most common item picked up.

For the Ramos family, the biggest concern is the impact on wildlife.

"They could eat it on accident," Natalie's son, Castiel Ramos, said. "That's why I mostly never use plastic bags."

His mother hopes experiences like this encourage lifelong habits.

"He can see it, especially at young age, start seeing now the effects of the trash has on the environment," Natalie said.

Lynette Linn also volunteered her time to clean up. She filled three bags with trash but says there's still much more to be done.

"Everybody should just really play a part and if they see something, try to pick it up, but it makes me sad. I wish we could do a little bit more," Linn said. "I just wonder how long it took for all of that to collect along our shoreline and how much did we missed on that is sitting in our riverbeds."

Much of the debris didn't originate at the Arroyo Colorado. Runoff is collected from across the Rio Grande Valley and flows straight into the river, which is the largest freshwater source emptying into the Laguna Madre.

"Anything from Mission, down to McAllen, Donna, Weslaco, Harlingen, all the way out here to Arroyo City. We do get everything that washes into storm drain out here," Arroyo Colorado Watershed Coordinator Samantha Colunga said. "It's pretty polluted, whether trash that we could visibly see but also non-point source pollution."

Organizers say volunteers also pulled out large items like refrigerator doors, coolers and chairs.

They say keeping those materials out of the water not only helps protect fish and wildlife but the people who come here to enjoy the outdoors.

Watch the video above for the full story.