Sydney Harbour: Video shows cleaner blowing garbage into drain

Aussies have fired up over footage of a Sydney street cleaner committing a controversial act while working in a car park in The Rocks.

Footage of a street cleaner blowing and kicking rubbish straight into a drain has drawn the ire of an organisation working to clean up Sydney Harbour, describing it as unacceptable.

The incident is understood to have taken place at The Rocks, on the edge of the harbour, in a car park of the Overseas Passenger Terminal where cruise ships dock in the city.

A video showing the worker using a leaf blower to direct garbage and plant debris down a grate was shared over the weekend by the Seabin Project.

“How Sydney keeps its streets clean,” the video was captioned.

The video shows the worker blowing rubbish toward the drain.

He then kicks some into the sewer. Pictures: Instagram/@seabin_project

The Seabin Project – which has installed devices in the harbour to filter waste from the water – called out the City of Sydney saying “this simply isn’t acceptable”.

A spokesperson for the City of Sydney, however, said the footage was captured in a car park at the Overseas Passenger Terminal.

That area comes under the jurisdiction of Place Management NSW, not the council.

Place Management NSW hasT been contacted for comment.

A report by the CSIRO last year estimated 3500 cubic metres of litter was collected from Sydney Harbour each year.

“This is the equivalent of 44,000 wheelie bins worth of litter in our water,” it said.

The Seabin Project has 33 units operating on the harbour, filtering things like microplastics and catching larger items such as bottles and cans.

It says on its website that its floating garbage filters had captured 100 tonnes of marine litter in Sydney between July 2020 and November 2022.

Seabin chief executive and co-founder Pete Ceglinski with a bin installed at Pyrmont. Picture: AAP/Image Matthew Vasilescu

A seabin filtering a body of water

📹 seabin_project
pic.twitter.com/PUuHgc5LwQ

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) February 25, 2024

Its video sparked a flood of comments on social media, with some rallying against the use of leaf blowers as a cleaning tool.

“Leaf blowers are a modern day scourge on society,” one person wrote.

“All they do is move rubbish around, not getting rid of anything. Not to mention the noise pollution.”

Another said the footage was indicative of a “general ignorance” of where garbage ended up when put into the stormwater network.

“I think there’s a lack of understanding from the general population around our water systems. And how the stormwater run-off works,” they said.

“How things don’t just ‘go away’ in the drains, but it all goes to the closest water body where we all swim!”

Another simply wrote: “This is not OK.”

In 2022, a two-week trial at the Garden Island navy site in the harbour saw 140kg of waste removed per week using Seabins.