4ocean’s Solar-Powered “BeBot” Helps Clean Beach Sand!

FastCompany.com reports that BeBot, a solar-powered robot produced by 4ocean, speeds up the process of cleaning plastic bits mixed into beach sand. As the BeBot travels back and forth, covering an area roughly three-fifths the size of a football field each hour, it sifts the top layer of sand through a screen, capturing anything larger than a square centimeter, from pieces of old packaging to cigarette butts.  After a run, an operator needs to sift through the contents it gathers to separate recyclable plastic and trash from harmless pebbles and shells that are then returned to the beach sand. 4ocean is testing the robot in Hawaii, which has some of the most polluted beaches in the world. The robot is just one step of a much larger issue—single-use plastic containers need to be minimized through a combination of strategies that involve public education, bio-degradable materials and other steps.