Ontario’s beaches are getting their own personal Roomba this summer.
In June, the non-profit Pollution Probe launched BeBot, a beach cleaning robot, at Sibbald Point Provincial Park in Sutton West. The remote-controlled robot is being used to collect plastic debris before it gets into Canada’s Great Lakes.
“The five Great Lakes make up the largest freshwater system in the world, and working to protect them from plastic pollution is critical to ensuring their long-term health and that of the incredible array of ecosystems and wildlife found across the region,” says Melissa DeYoung, the CEO of Pollution Probe.
BeBot is just one of the initiatives rolled out by the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup, a collaborative effort between Pollution Probe and the Council of the Great Lakes Region. Started in 2020, the project uses technology to prevent and remove plastic from the Great Lakes. The tech includes a trash skimmer that floats near docks, a catch basin that goes in storm water drains, and a floating drone that collects plastic from the water.
“We tend to find a lot of microplastics or pieces that have broken down from larger pieces,” says DeYoung. “Foam is a big issue in a lot of different lakes, whether that’s dock foam or construction foam, as well as pre-production plastic pellets, or nurdles, which are tiny plastic resin pellets that are the building blocks for any plastic items that are manufactured.”
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BeBot collects larger plastic debris from beaches before it enters the Great Lakes and breaks down into smaller pieces. Moving at around three kilometres per hour, BeBot can clean up to 3,000 square metres of beach in an hour, sifting four millimetres below the sand’s surface. The robot is fully electric with a charge that can last for eight hours.
BeBot has tested successfully on the U.S.-side of the Great Lakes and has now come to Canada thanks to a partnership with Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, Conservation, and Parks.
But this doesn’t mean BeBot will solve Canada’s plastic pollution problem. “There’s so much plastic out there. It’s everywhere throughout the Great Lakes,” says DeYoung. It is, however, a great tool for drawing attention to the issue.
“[BeBot] is a public engagement magnet,” says DeYoung. “It’s highly visible. Even just using it the past few weeks, everyone’s curious about what it is. That opens the door to discussions about what we’re seeing in the environment, and what people think they could be doing in their own lives to be part of the solution to ending plastic pollution in our Great Lakes.”
BeBot also helps Pollution Probe collect data. Each piece of plastic pulled from the environment is sorted and counted by volunteers.
Since 2020, the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup has collected nearly 250,000 pieces of plastic. One hundred and twenty thousand of those pieces have come from Lake Ontario. It’s also launched more than 160 plastic capture devices in 234 locations across Canada and the U.S., engaged with 29,000 people at outreach events, and collected more than 2,350 data submissions from across its network.
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“We’re collecting the type of information that forms the foundation for discussions with government, discussions with industry, figuring out what some of the sources are, so we can actually have the policy put into place to affect change long term and to try to prevent plastic from finding its way into the environment in the future,” says DeYoung.
BeBot started its summer tour cleaning up Sibbald Beach on Lake Simcoe. Next will be Huron Provincial Park on Lake Huron, followed by Long Point Provincial Park on Lake Erie, and then Sandbanks Provincial Park and Darlington Provincial Park on Lake Ontario.
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