The BeBot is a remote-controlled beach-cleaning device designed to collect garbage and plastic litter from Michigan beaches along Great Lakes shorelines. The robot, which resembles a tank-treaded go-cart, has a basket that drops down and drags the beach.
“It has a little sifter in it, so we walk it on the beach. It picks up sand and then the sand drops out and whatever else remains in the back of the BeBot.”
Jamie Cross is an Outreach and Science Coordinator for Grand Valley State University’s Annis Water Resources Institute. She says BeBot does not discriminate when it comes to cleaning up the beach, picking up everything from plastic to wood.
“Once we have picked up the debris, I bring it back to the research institute and we sort it and catalogue it.”
The BeBot also collects data on the trash it picks up at the beaches, most of which is plastic. Estimates show as much as 20 million pounds of plastic enter the Great Lakes every year, which is a source of drinking water for 40 million Americans and Canadians.
“The goals of the program are to remove the plastic from the environment and to educate people in the community about plastics in the environment and also to do research and collection.”
The Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup is a statewide initiative that has joined with other research institutes to place BeBots at seven other locations throughout the region.
