Cooking oil, faeces, soap scum and vet drugs: Scientists reveal gross truth behind mysterious Sydney ‘tar balls’ Scientists have revealed the cause of mysterious black balls that washed up on ...

Faeces and bacteria found in mystery balls on Sydney ... October were at first mistakenly called "tar balls" but were later found to contain everything from cooking oil and soap scum molecules, ...

Testing has revealed thousands of balls washed up on Sydney’s beaches are a “disgusting” mix of cooking oil, soap scum, faeces and drugs, including cannabis and ice.

Tests eventually showed the balls were a mixture of cooking oil, soap scum, faeces and recreational drugs. The EPA concluded a source of these larger, darker balls could not be identified.