At a Glance

Hong Kong blames recent flooding in China for an "unprecedented" amount of trash on beaches.The response from Hong Kong's Environment Protection Department comes after weeks of outrage.

After weeks of silence and amid an outcry on social media, Hong Kong is blaming flooding in China for the "unprecedented" amount of trash strewn on its beaches, according to officials at the country'sEnvironmental Protection Department.

“We suspect that the floods in mid-June on the mainland might have brought the refuse to the sea and then the refuse is brought to Hong Kong by the southwest monsoon wind and the sea currents,” the department said by the South China Morning Post.

For several weeks, visitors to the island took to social media to voice their outrage over thestate of the region's beaches.

“I have never in my 20 years here seen consistently this much rubbish on our [South Lantau] shores,” in a post that included several photos of the littered beaches. “The seas are awash with so much that just keeps arriving on the shoreline it’s embarrassing... No one wants to sit on a beach with this. Wake Up Hong Kong.”

The barrage of complaints about the trash-strewn beaches ramped up on social media about two weeks ago before, leaving at least 128 dead, countless homes destroyed and millions evacuated.

WATCH: )

The environmental group Sea Shepherd Hong Kong said that the amount of trash washing up on Hong Kong’s beaches is “unprecedented.”

Other Explanations

Sea Shepherd cited “multiple culprits” for the polluted beaches, including mainland China and Hong Kong itself.

"A lot of the trash we find on our beaches and in our harbour is Hong Kong's own trash, we can see this from the brands, the labels and even so blatantly as is the case in Aberdeen harbour, even see the source staring us in the face in the case of polystyrene boxes, as they fall into the water," the Facebook post reads.

(MORE:)

"Then, of course, there is our neighbor, everyone prefers to blame the neighbor, and as with our current trash crisis much of it has mainland brands and labels not found in Hong Kong, so clearly it originates from the mainland, likely washed down the Pearl River Delta and along onto our shores," the post continues, eluding to China.

It also suggested that one of the culprits may be an islandcalled Wai Lingding, from which sailors and fishermen from Hong Kong have reported seeing a huge trash dump on the side of the cliffs.

Hong Kong's Response

For weeks, the Hong Kong government did not officially address the issue, butuser posted an alleged response to an email inquiry sent to Environmental Protection Department, which claimed at the time that it wasn’t the right agency to address the problem.

The government published , which found that “overall, marine refuse [human waste or material] does not constitute a serious problem in Hong Kong.”

However, the report also noted that "refuse accumulated at shores or floating on sea becomes a visual amenity problem and an eyesore generating complaints, and could cause impacts to the marine environment threatening the health of ecosystems. Concerted actions from the government and the community should be called for to keep the shorelines clean."

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: China Water Pollution

80 percent of China’s water has been found to be too contaminated to drink or bathe in, according to a new report. (Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images)