Don’t be alarmed if you see a Zamboni-like rover roaming Ontario’s shores this summer – it’s a beach cleaning robot being tested in some provincial parks.

The robot, called a BeBot, is a remotely operated and fully electric machine that removes plastic, glass, metal, paper and other debris from beaches with sand-sifting technology.

“This technology allows us to capture some of the larger pieces of plastic before they actually enter the water,” said Melissa DeYoung, CEO of environmental organization Pollution Probe, which launched the BeBot in partnership with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

DeYoung said it is “critically important” to remove litter and plastic before they enters lakes since they commonly break down into microplastics that can impact wildlife in the water.

“We’ll never be able to remove all of the plastic that’s found in the environment, but what we can do is collect data on the types of plastic we’re finding and then we have a very good sense of what the sources might be and where that plastic might be coming from,” said DeYoung.

The BeBot can clean up to 3,000 square metres per hour for up to eight hours and can remove the equivalent of around 19 bowling balls worth of plastic in one use, said DeYoung. The robot is battery-powered with a solar panel on the back and has a top speed of just below three kilometres per hour.

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The BeBot began its litter-cleaning work on the shores of Lake Simcoe at Sibbald Point Provincial Park this week, and will make its way to Inverhuron Provincial Park on Lake Huron in the next month.

Then, it will head to Lake Erie’s Long Point Provincial Park in late July and August, and Sandbanks Provincial Park and Darlington Provincial Park on Lake Ontario near the end of the summer.

While removing litter is its main job, DeYoung said the robot’s tour across the province also aims to encourage people to reduce waste.

“Sometimes people think we don’t have an issue because they can’t spot that plastic in the water,” DeYoung said.

“So having this technology that’s highly visible out on the beach while we’re working invites people to come in and discuss what we’re doing and then we can have those types of conversations that are required to have long-term solutions.”

Pollution Probe first launched its initiative to remove plastic from the Great Lakes – called The Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup – in 2020 alongside the Council of the Great Lakes Region.

DeYoung said the group had previously piloted the BeBot in the United States and was looking to find partners to bring it to Canada, leading to its collaboration with the Ontario government and Unsmoke Canada.

Andrew Dowie, parliamentary assistant to Environment Minister Todd McCarthy, said the Ontario government has provided almost $1 million to Pollution Probe’s efforts to tackle plastic pollution around the Great Lakes since 2021.

The beach cleaning robot will join more than 160 plastic capturing technologies already in use by Pollution Probe, DeYoung said.

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