Waves of debris have today washed up on beaches near Port Stephens, north of the New South Wales Central Coast, after 83 metal containers fell off a freight ship on Friday night.

Broken shards of plastic, corrugated iron and reusable cups can be seen littering Jimmys Beach, south of Hawks Nest, believed to be from the containers that remain unlocated in the ocean.

Debris has also been seen washing up on other beaches in the Port Stephens region, including at Rocky Point and the Yacaaba Headland.

Heavy seas hit the fully-loaded Liberian freight ship, YM Efficiency, when the containers fell like dominoes into the water 30 kilometres off the coast of Port Stephens.

“The containers fell off in the middle of the night… quite often they’ll fall off on each other, so they’re damaged before they get into the water,” Angus Mitchell from Roads and Maritime Services told 9NEWS.

Since the incident, the containers have since scattered through the water off the NSW coastline and their cargo, including nappies, surgical masks and building supplies, continue to be washed up on local beaches.

None of the contents from the containers, apart from the freighting containers themselves, are believed to be dangerous or capable of damaging the surrounding marine environment near to the beaches.

"We are starting to recover a large amount of plastic, of building materials, of furniture materials and a whole range of packing goods that have come out of those containers," Mr Mitchell today told media.

"It is quite a delicate operation, one to bring the ship in - weather over the weekend did prohibit it coming into a port - and now we are negotiating the ship owner... as to which berth it will come into to unload the remainder of its containers.

"At the moment the focus is very much on the cleanup. We have a number of crews in location at the moment, I think we've recovered already around five skip bins full of debris."

Vessels in the area around the initial fall have been urged to keep an eye out for containers in the water that also continue to pose a risk to other marine craft.

Meanwhile, local residents in the areas where most of the debris is washing up have been transporting carloads of rubbish away from the beaches in an attempt to keep them clean, according to an ABC report.

Regardless of the volunteer efforts, Mr Mitchell said local residents are being urged to leave the cleanup mission to the contracted workers who are on-site helping to remove the debris.

"It is quite a sensitive area to clean up from," he said.

"A lot of the area impacted is four-wheel-drive access only and it is in state marine parks, so it is something that we are doing very carefully and in a very considered manner."

Despite that, local resident and cleanup volunteer Julie Simms said people at the scene looking to help had not yet been approached by official contractors, and that she expects to continue removing debris herself for weeks to come.

"There's been mountains and mountains of rubbish and debris washing in. It's plastic, car parts, lolly wrappers, drink bottles - just plastic and more plastic," she said.

"It's been caught up in the weed and washed back out and as the tide comes in, it brings more rubbish.

"It's horrible. We cleaned up this stretch of beach yesterday and we knew it was going to keep coming back in but to come and see the next wave of it - and it's different rubbish turning up today - I just felt like crying.

"We'll be cleaning everyday for weeks, this is going to just keep coming back in."

The ship's operators and insurers have launched efforts to assist in the cleanup efforts and to offer compensation for the incident.

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