As outrage sets in over shocking photos of one of Sydney’s most popular beaches strewn with rubbish, some critics can’t help but point out a glaring double standard.

On Christmas Day, Bronte Beach in Sydney’s east hosted a backpacker festival. But by the next day, the grass was covered in rubbish as far as the eye could see.

Not only was trash like cups and empty bottles left behind, but backpackers also dumped perfectly intact towels, shoes and eskies.

Furious residents shared the “disgusting” pictures on a local Facebook page and noticed an eye-watering detail.

One social media user said: “Bronte Beach after Christmas Day celebrations. This is the generation worshipping going green”.

Another waded in, writing: “This is how much Greta’s climate warriors care about the planet … The youth are *dedicated* to cleaning up the world – so long as they can force some poor slave to do it for them”.

A survey inApril carried out by Our World, Our Say found that 80 per cent of Australians over 16 were worried about climate change.

However, as many online critics pointed out, a lot of the people making the mess weren’t Australian.

Others were quick to hit back, explaining that bringing in talk of climate change was “false equivalence”, when parallels are drawn between two subjects that have nothing to do with each other.

“Did I miss something. What has this waste got to do with environmental groups?”

“Not sure why bring Greta in the conversation,” said another.

This is not the first time people celebrated Christmas Day at Bronte Beach. Two years ago, a crowd of mostly backpackers held an impromptu party at the beach. Photo / Toby Zerna

Outraged by the sight, other locals flooded the comments section of the Facebook post to express their disgust.

“Appalling, such lack of respect, there should be fines enforced,” one wrote.

“Revolting. No respect,” another wrote.

“Awful! I feel for the council workers who have to clean up this disgusting mess,” a third said.

“OMG that’s shameful,” another said.

Local and Bronte Surf Lifesaving Club life member David Stone said it was the “worst [he has] seen in 20 years”.

“The rubbish carnage (was) so bad that locals and lifeguards voluntarily joined the extra council cleaners to clear it up,” he told NCA NewsWire.

“Personally I collected bottles, food, clothing including underwear, broken glass and heaps of drugs paraphernalia, plastic bags.

“Sad that it was all just dropped everywhere.”

Stone said he was concerned the mess would prompt the local council to introduce a paid ticketed system for major holidays.

“It would be a shame and I would hate to see it fenced and pay for entry at prime times but people need to take responsibility for their rubbish,” he said.