Thanks to the combined efforts of the Northern Beaches Community and Council’s waste management staff the Northern Beaches is looking clean and tidy after Clean Up Australia Day.

Despite the mixed weather, hundreds of volunteers donned gloves and work boots to pick up litter around our community.

Last year across the Northern Beaches, Council staff collected almost nine tonnes of rubbish from Clean Up Australia Day.

Council’s Deputy General Manager Ben Taylor said around 80 community sites were involved along with businesses and school groups however, cleaning up is not just once a year.

“This has been a great partnership between Clean Up Australia Day and Northern Beaches community and Council – they pick up the rubbish and then we collect and get rid of it.

“The community is proud of our pristine natural environment and it’s great to be able to work together, but litter is an on-going challenge and we urge everyone to dispose of it responsibly.

“Every day, we have to rake some of our beaches to remove rubbish,” Mr Taylor said.

Some of the more unusual items recovered include a fire extinguisher, a dog kennel and a surf board, and some of the worst offending items are small.

One volunteer collected 50 straws in just 20 minutes at Little Manly Beach.

Many beach clean-ups produced hundreds of single use straws, as well as bottle tops and cigarettes.

One of the most challenging missions was retrieving clean up rubbish by barge from the offshore communities