Healthy River Ambassador Melissa Gray said Dubbo had made great strides to become a cleaner city in recent years.

"The Dubbo Macquarie Bush care group always get our kayaks out and pull rubbish out of the river on Clean Up Australia Day," she said.

"We still find trolleys and things that should not be in the river at all.

“Keeping our rivers clean is vitally important, more so now than ever before.”

Ms Gray said the good work of locals who care for the environment has helped, but more needs to be done.

"We have noticed fewer cans and bottles in the river since the refund policy came in and also a decrease in rubbish in the river thanks to the Inland Waterways Rejuvenation Association and the excellent work they do,” she said.

"It still concerns me to see rubbish in the river, there is still too much, but with a positive move by the council to install gross pollutant traps we may see less, the new ones don't need as much maintenance as the old ones and it would be good to see a river free of rubbish altogether."

Managing Director of Clean Up Australia Terrie-Ann Johnson said participating in an event on the day helps remove rubbish accumulating in local parks, bushland, beaches and waterways before it kills our wildlife.

“Change starts with you. The key to success is stopping litter becoming rubbish," she said.

"There are so many actions every one of us can take to help reduce the eight million tonnes of plastic entering our oceans worldwide each year.”

Registrations are now open for the 2019 Clean Up Australia Day. 

Businesses are encouraged to focus their action on Clean Up Day - Tuesday 26 February with Schools running their own Clean Up on Friday 1 March and youth and community groups taking to their streets over the weekend of 2-3 March.

Online registrations are free and now open at www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au.