The Central Coast Regional Government of New South Wales, Australia, announced on the 21st that a large number of garbage balls had appeared on seven beaches. The government has begun cleaning up the debris and investigating its composition and origin. The government advises the public to avoid visiting these beaches or touching the unidentified debris.
The Central Coast is located between Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, and Newcastle. Environmental officials discovered these gray, lumpy garbage balls of varying sizes on seven beaches.
The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority will test the composition of the debris and investigate its origin.
The regional government said it is not yet clear whether this debris is related to the garbage balls found on several Sydney beaches between October 2024 and January 2025.
On October 16, 2024, a black substance was seen mixed in the water at Coogee Beach, east of Sydney, Australia.
In October 2024, thousands of dark-colored garbage balls appeared on several beaches east of Sydney, including Bondi Beach and Coogee Beach, forcing them to be closed. In January of this year, nine Sydney beaches were temporarily closed for the same reason.
After an investigation, the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority concluded that the pellets washed up on Sydney beaches likely came from Sydney Water’s wastewater treatment plants. Investigators found that the composition of the pellets was similar to that of samples from several major wastewater treatment plants.