Episode Description
When you’re at the beach this summer, you might notice something pretty cool: a Zamboni-like robot that meticulously cleans the sand.
It’s called a BeBot, and it was unveiled for the first time in Canada last year by the not-for-profit group Pollution Probe.
The vacuum-like device — which can cover 3,000 square meters per hour — sifts through sand in search of small pieces of waste. Last summer, while deployed to shorelines on all five Great Lakes, the BeBot collected a whopping 43,375 pieces of debris, including cigarette butts, toys, fireworks pieces, and fishing and hunting gear.
The machine is back in business this summer. It just finished a deployment near Lake Simcoe, and is now at Port Burwell Provincial Park near Lake Erie.
On this week’s episode of Village Media’s Closer Look podcast, we revisit our chat with Melissa De Young, the CEO of Pollution Probe, who told us how the robot works, why it’s so important — and how beach-goers react when they spot it.