Rubbish covers OZ beaches

Debris

from 83 shipping containers continues to wash up on beaches north of Newcastle, in Australia. The cargo tumbled off a Taiwanese- owned ship in a heavy swell off the coast of New South Wales on Thursday.

Locals from the New South Wales region have collected dozens of bags of plastic material, jars, packaged food, clocks, nappies and sanitary items from 83 containers that fell off a cargo ship last Thursday night.

About 30 more were moved or damaged.

The 50,000- tonne YM Efficiency was making its way from Taiwan to Sydney when it was hit by heavy swells about 30km off the coast.

Taiwanese shipping company Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation has apologised for the incident. “We know that the marine incident has brought a lot of public concern,” spokesman Steven Ka said on Tuesday.

Port Stephens EcoNetwork’s Nigel Dique and about eight volunteers have already filled at least 20 large bags of debris from Zenith and Box beaches.

“There were broken clocks, bits of structural plastic material, lots of jars and food items packaged in plastic,” Dique said. “I don’t know what else was in these containers, if there was anything toxic, but certainly turtles and whales and large marine creatures think they are food and swallow the stuff.”