A couple of pieces of pipe, a leaf blower and a firewood bag.
These are the simple items two men are using to clean up their local beach after it was inundated with polystyrene.
Aaron Posadowski and Chibi Spanton love tinkering and inventing things.
So when they saw the state of their beloved Rainbow Beach after flood events washed up masses of the foam on Queensland's coastline, they knew they needed to help.
Mr Posadowski said he and Mr Spanton spent a few days coming up with the concept.
"So I set the challenge for us to come up with something to clean up all the small particles."
A few days later the modified leaf blower concept was born — nicknamed the Built by Blokes Beach Blower and Vac.
Mr Spanton said the machine was a simple but effective design and could either suck up the polystyrene or blow it into a pile large enough to pick up.
"We just adapted it with some pipe and bag and collection point, with just some things we had laying around the house and found that worked pretty good," he said.
"If you just keep your distance away from it, just enough to pull the foam up, and it will vacuum that and leave most of the sand."
He said the firewood bag was attached to the rear of the blower and collected the styrofoam that was sucked into the machine.
"The machine just shreds the foam into little bits that goes into the bag nicely," he said.
The tip of the iceberg
The men spent a day at Rainbow Beach recently where they collected one-and-a-half cubic metres of foam using the device.
"We covered a stretch of about two kilometres and that took seven or eight hours," Mr Posadowski said.
"There's a bunch of good people out there taking out what they can, but it's quite difficult to pick up the small stuff."
Much of the foam is believed to be remnants of pontoons that washed out of rivers and marinas during the flood event last month.
Noosa Regional Council has removed 18 structures from local beaches, with the assistance of Maritime Safety Queensland, but a lot of white particles remained.
Acting Environmental Services Officer Shaun Walsh said council had been liaising with the state government on the best way to tackle the problem.
He said the council was about to embark on a trial of industrial vacuums to suck up the polystyrene at beaches.
"We're almost industrialising that process," he said.
"So that when it goes through the vacuum system, it goes through a sieve system [that] actually sieves the sand out from the polystyrene."
The council wants residents to report foam hotspots on local beaches so it can target the worst-affected areas first.
Effects on marine life unknown
Marine experts say it could be months, or even years, before the true impact on marine life is known.
SeaLife's Kate Willson said it had not yet treated any animals who had ingested the polystyrene, but expected to down the track.
"'Especially with our sea turtles, we know their seagrass beds have been severely impacted.
"So that's something we're going to be really conscious of going forward, just keep an eye on how those trickle in."
Ms Willson said marine life could mistake the polystyrene for food, causing major digestive issues.
"With our turtles, they can get what we call the floating syndrome, it just blocks up so they can't pass it."
Ms Willson encouraged everyone to do their part by picking up any pieces of polystyrene they may see during visits to local beaches.
