MUSKEGON, Mich. — In a mess created by man, machine might be the best hope of cleaning it up.
On Tuesday, Meijer, in partnership with the Council of the Great Lakes Region, demonstrated new drone technology that will help collect trash – namely plastics – that plague the beaches of Lake Michigan.
Thanks to a $1 million donation from Meijer, two drones will collect garbage on land and in the water. The Be-Bot drone travels on tracks and sifts through sand to shake out things that shouldn’t be there. The Be-Bot is both solar and battery powered, and can canvass 32,000-square-feet per hour. It rakes through the sand without altering the beach environment, collecting plastic litter and other waste – bottles, cans, food wrappers, cigarette butts – in a basket for disposal and recycling.
The Pixie Drone does much the same, but from the water. The eco-friendly, remote-controlled water drone can collect up to 200 pounds of material per use. Aside from gulping up litter, it will also collect other water data, such as temperature, pH, salinity, turbidity and dissolved oxygen.
As part of the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup Program, the drones will help Meijer and the CGLR lead cleanup projects at busy beaches, marinas and waterways in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin in partnership with a variety of community, state and environmental NGO partners.
“Millions of pounds of plastic are entering the Great Lakes every year, and some models are projecting as much as 22-million pounds of plastic are entering annually,” said Lora Shrake with the Council for the Great Lakes Region during a press conference before a demonstration of the drones Tuesday. “Once collected, the litter is the analyzed providing valuable data that allows us to understand the scale of the problem that’s facing the Great Lakes.”
The drones will always be accompanied by an operator. On Tuesday, it was Gautier Peers, a partnership manager with drone-maker Searial Cleaners. He says that added presence will allow for some important conversations.
“I want to keep that opportunity to always catch people’s attention and then like start a conversation with them,” said Peers. “Just before I was testing the technology here…and there were like four people coming to me and asking questions and this is what I want to do.”
Jeff is also on YouTube, under the channel Jeff's Obsessions. His wife Nicole also tracks her finds at Michigan Diggin'.
