Newly installed Seabins at Port Macquarie Marina have been emptied for the first time.
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The Seabin device is an Australian innovation that is used to capture floating debris and litter from waterways.
The two Seabins were installed on April 18.
Coastal Warriors Education and Communications Liaison officer Meeghan Stephens said it was exciting to find out what the Seabins had captured.
"The majority of stuff I found was polystyrene foam, cigarette butts, quite a few straws, a lot of organic waste such as seaweed was caught and a lot of microplastics was found amongst it."
Ms Stephens said it is hard to tell exactly where the rubbish comes from.
"80 per cent of waste found in ocean is from a land-based source and because both these Seabins live in the ocean we have no way of telling whether it is land-based blowing in or from the ocean."
Ms Stephens was most excited about capturing microplastics ( any sort of plastic that is under 5mm in diameter).
Microplastics break down into tiny pieces which we can no longer pick up...essentially you would have to use a sieve but the Seabins pick it up.
- Meeghan Stephens
There are over 600 Seabins around the world.
Port Macquarie is the first regional town to have Seabins installed.
Ms Stephens said rubbish from the Seabins will be collected fortnightly.
The data on the Seabins will be entered into a data collection website and provide a snapshot of the type of waste in Port Macquarie waterways.
She urged the public not to interfere with the Seabins.
"Let us do our job."
