A ladder, fan, tyres, car batteries, cigarette butts, a variety of plastic products and hundreds of bottles and cans were among the many items found beneath the water at Wollongong Harbour on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Wollongong Free Divers founder Sandra Dohring was among 120 people were involved for the annual Wollongong Harbour Land and Sea Cleanup and said the good news was there was less rubbish than last year.
Saturday's event was part of the Clean Up Australia Day campaign where community groups and volunteers clear rubbish from sites across the nation.
Ms Dohring said participants in the third annual cleanup on Saturday included scuba divers, surfers and land crews.
She said the event had great support from Wollongong City Council and the Rotary Club of Wollongong.
There were also several volunteers from the Surfrider Foundation, JCI Illawarra, OZfish limited, Peloton Against Plastic, Women Make Waves and Yacht Club members.
"We had 160 people last year," Ms Dohring said.
"This year is a bit less because we did not know if it was going to proceed with COVID.
"We picked up about one third the rubbish compared to last year when we collected around 700 kilos of rubbish.
"The difference is we actually noticed the harbour was much cleaner under the water.
"I think when we first started cleaning up here we found a lot of waste that had been building up for years.
"But because we have been cleaning up the harbour on a regular basis we are finding less."
Ms Dohring said it was also a sign that the message about the impact of litter on the environment and marine life was starting to sink in after she started the event in 2019 to raise environmental awareness.
She said Wollongong Free Divers and Scuba Diving team would keep collecting rubbish in the harbour every year and acknowledged that Clean Up Australia Day should not just be one day, but ideally every single day of the year.
In Wollongong hundreds of volunteers registered to help clean up 20 different sites across the city on Sunday with a focus on waterways, roadsides, parks, reserves, beaches and bushland areas.
People such as Ms Dohring are passionate about the community effort because they know rubbish not disposed of correctly will end up in waterways endangering marine and bird life.
Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said council supported the annual event and said in 2020 volunteers across the city collected 13 tonnes of waste.
This year was a little different with COVID safety measures in place. Volunteers have used QR codes to sign-in on arrival, a limit of 10 volunteers per group to ensure social distancing and COVID marshalls in place.
Read more:
We depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.