An army of eco-warriors collected hundreds of kilograms of rubbish - including thousands of discarded cigarette butts - during a clean-up of the Wollongong Harbour area and a Port Kembla litter hotspot at the weekend.
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More than 150 people came together for the city's first ever Wollongong Harbour Land And Sea Clean-Up on Saturday morning.
The event was organised by a host of community organisations, as part of Clean Up Australia Day 2019.
The clean-up crew scoured land and water from the harbour to Wollongong City beach, as well as Honeycomb Rocks at Port Kembla's Hill 60.
They collected 38 bags of rubbish, weighing a combined 325 kilograms.
Among the items of litter lifted and shifted were 5000 cigarette butts, 116 coffee cups, 109 plastic bottles, 147 takeaway plastic cups/plates, and 140 plastic straws.
Andy Gray, from Plastic Free Wollongong, said most of the rubbish was “run-of-the-mill stuff" and “super avoidable”.
“I didn’t think we’d get as much as we did, to be honest, but it was a really significant haul," Mr Gray said.
“We had lots of your common items; straws, bottles, containers, cutlery, lots of Maccas cups, lots of chip packets and things."
While organisers had hoped to have divers collect rubbish from the harbour floor, water contamination meant they could only focus on a section of water behind the breakwater lighthouse.
