Sutherland Shire Council immediately placed signs at Silver Beach advising of the contamination at the eastern end, and is handling the clean-up.

The debris varies in size, shape and colour with some rounded and golf ball size while larger ones are more irregular in shape. They range in colour from whitish or pale through green, grey and black.

EPA officers collected samples for analysis which will be tested and compared to others found in the last two months.

This is a much smaller event than the incident in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in October, with fewer balls over a smaller area.

Officers from the EPA, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and Sutherland Shire Council have inspected nearby beaches, without finding any further debris.

Sydney Water officers found a small number of balls across Botany Bay at Dolls Point Beach, which were immediately cleaned up.

The EPA has finalised testing on ball-shaped debris that washed up on beaches in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs in October, confirming earlier results that indicate their origin is likely a source that releases mixed waste.

Experts could not determine where the balls originated from as no source samples were available for comparison.  

The EPA is awaiting results of testing on debris balls which washed up in Kiama in November.