‘More litter in Tahoe than meets the eye’
A beach cleaning robot company's findings so far and future goals
Published by: Tahoe Daily Tribune: https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/more-litter-in-tahoe-than-meets-the-eye/
Date: April 26th, 2024 by Katelyn Welsh
GREATER LAKE TAHOE AREA, Calif./Nev. – In a test of human versus machine, volunteers evaluated their beach cleanup efficacy against the beach cleaning robot, BEBOT. Volunteers gathered all the trash they could find on a stretch of Nevada Beach. Then, it was BEBOT’s turn.
BEBOT, ECO-CLEAN Solution’s beach cleaning robot. Image by Katy Jo Caringer ECO-CLEAN Solutions
Human volunteers retrieved 30 pieces of trash, BEBOT captured 300.
“What that is highlighting is really not an issue with what was conducted with the human-powered cleaning, but,” JT Chevallier, co-founder of ECO-CLEAN Solutions said, “there is an ugly story that exists just below the surface of the sand that we might not be seeing.”
The ugly story sat on a slide behind him. It read, “…there is more litter in Tahoe than meets the eye.” The slide was part of a larger presentation Chevallier provided in February at the Tahoe Beach Club regarding his company’s highlights and goals.
“We like to think challenges are not just challenges, but they’re opportunities,” he said at the meeting, with both humans and technology as a part of the solution.
While traditional human methods of beach cleaning are important for grabbing the wind-blown items caught in bushes or cleaning protected Tahoe Yellow Cress areas, it can be challenging and time-consuming to remove tiny litter under the sand.
That’s where BEBOT takes the baton, sifting up to four inches below the sand’s surface and catching debris as small as 1 centimeter.
“We like to think of ourselves as the last stand,” Chevallier said, against litter making its way into the lake’s ecosystem, becoming even harder to remove. The work isn’t done after BEBOT’s hopper is emptied. The trash gets sorted and cataloged.
Typical categories consist of seed and other organic waste, invasive clams, bandaids, plastics, metals such as bottle caps, tent spikes and even coins. Chevallier joked, “That’s how ECO-CLEAN’s funded.”
Catalogued results from a BEBOT beach cleaning at Connolley Beach, Sept. 26, 2023. Provided by JT Chevallier of ECO-CLEAN Solutions
Jokes aside, the data makes a serious impact as it becomes a part of the League to Save Lake Tahoe’s data. This data is important for policy and advocacy initiatives.
“We want to partner with organizations around the lake to stop litter at the source,” Marketing Director Katy Jo Caringer says, “Through data-driven solutions, we can help local restaurants and retailers move away from using single-use plastics altogether.”
‘We’re just getting started,’
Chevallier and his childhood friend, JB Harris, started the company in 2021. “We wanted to be a little bit better than snowboard bums,” Chevallier said. The two had moved to Lake Tahoe from Las Vegas in 2006 to snowboard.
JT Chevallier and JB Harris operate BEBOT during a demo on Tallac Beach, June 15, 2022. Image by: Katy Jo Caringer of ECO-CLEAN Solutions
BEBOT deployment began in 2022. Since then, they’ve conducted over 20 beach cleanups, collected approximately 10,000 pieces of trash and invasive organic debris. Through required Tahoe Yellow Cress surveys before beach cleaning season begins, the company has supported the preservation and has identified new populations of endemic Tahoe Yellow Cress. Once a new population is discovered a protective fence goes up around it.
The BEBOT machine is gentle on the environment and doesn’t damage flora or fauna as it sifts through sand.
Public beaches cleaned are:
Connolley Beach
Kings Beach
Sand Harbor
Nevada Beach
Camp Richardson
Glenbrook
Zephyr Shoals
Valhalla
El Dorado
They’ve also cleaned the following private beaches: Tahoe Beach Club, Lakeshore Private Residences and Ski Beach.
BEBOT comes from the French company, Searial Cleaners. Tahoe is BEBOT’s only western U.S. deployment. The team has been hitting Tahoe’s beaches in force as evidenced by Co-Founder Harris logging the most operation hours for a BEBOT machine in the world.
The plethora of experience in such a highly regulated area as Tahoe has led the team to develop standard operating procedures for the device.
After highlighting the events since BEBOTs deployments, Chevallier said to the audience, “We’re not done, We’re just getting started.”
‘Plenty of gas in the tank’
The team has no plans of slowing down. “We’re powered by the sun, so we’ve got plenty of gas in the tank,” Chevallier said.
They have plenty of tasks for these solar-powered machines this year. Eight public beach cleanings are on the list around the lake, and six private beach cleanings, including three at the Tahoe Beach Club and others in North Lake.
This year’s first beach cleaning at the Tahoe Beach Club on April 23, 2024. Image by: Katy Jo Caringer of ECO-CLEAN Solutions
ECO-CLEAN will have three BEBOTs in their fleet this year and four at the start of next year. A grant from North Tahoe Community Alliance through their TOT-TBID Dollars at Work program (Transient Occupancy Tax and North Lake Tahoe Tourism Business Improvement District) which has made their fleet expansion into North Lake possible.
Caringer explains these funds that are generated in North Lake Tahoe are allocated to projects that support community vitality, environmental stewardship, and economic health.
ECO-CLEAN Solutions’ Beach cleanings begin around June 15, sometimes earlier. It depends on when the Tahoe Yellow Cress surveys are finished. Operations continue through around October. That’s when the sand becomes too moist for the machine to efficiently sort sand. Pine needles become a factor as well.
The team operates the machines typically around dawn or in the evening when the beaches are least utilized by the public and guests.
ECO-CLEAN is aiming to clean about one million square feet of shoreline this year in Tahoe.
This year the company is receiving help from University of Nevada, Reno graduate students with implementing a new data collection system, incorporating the Desert Research Institute to scientifically narrow down which plastics are largely contributing to the microplastic problem in Lake Tahoe.
‘New toys’
ECO-CLEAN Solutions is plunging into water cleanup. “We got some new toys,” Chevallier announced to the group as he introduced their aquabots, the term coined for their PixieDrone and Collec’Thor.
The PixieDrone glides across the lake’s surface to gather debris and invasive weeds. They’ve implemented it in the Tahoe Keys Marina east channel and removed around 65 gallons of aquatic invasive weed fragments. 1% of materials captured consisted of trash and inorganic materials, most of which were styrofoam particles.
This year they plan to test automated routes in order to identify weed and debris hotspots in the Tahoe Keys Marina.
The PixieDrone glides across the water surface, collecting invasive weeds and trash. Photo by: Katy Jo Caringer of ECO-CLEAN Solutions
Potentially in the future, the aquabot can be fitted with hydrocarbon sponges to clean up liquid hydrocarbon pollution from boats. Caringer says this is still in the testing phase and may not be implemented until next summer.
This summer, ECO-CLEAN Solutions is launching the Collec’Thor, a fixed trash and waste collector. The stationary device suctions 320 gallons of water per minute, capturing materials. It’s most effective when used in tandem with a bubble curtain, a wall of aeration that prevents materials from exiting a region, like the Tahoe Keys, and entering the lake.
The Collec’Thor is a stationary device that collects debris as it suctions water through it. Photo by: Katy Jo Caringer
ECO-CLEAN intends on testing the efficacy of the Collec’Thor, Pixie Drone and bubble curtain working in sync together to prevent invasive weed fragments and debris in the Tahoe Keys from spreading from the marina.
One question ECO-CLEAN is wrestling with is what to do with the trash collected. “We want the trash to continue to live,” Chavallier said, explaining, “We don’t want it to just end up back in the landfill.”
Some of the litter is used for education and outreach, but they’re having further discussions about potentially creating artwork or repurposing it. Future plans are to partner with Shane McConkey’s Foundation called Don’t Drop the Top that uses plastic lids for benches.
“When I think about Lake Tahoe,” Chevallier said, sharing his thoughts with the group, “It’s not our lake, it’s our turn to enjoy this lake.”
Their eventual goal is to expand beyond Tahoe, inspiring other destination resorts and government agencies around the world to adopt this new technology to employ sustainable tourism practices year-round.
ECO-CLEAN Solutions, in partnership with the League to Save Lake Tahoe has created a website with a storyboard of their project for anyone who wants to find out more.
Freshly cleaned beach at Tahoe Beach Club, in Stateline, Nevada. Photo by: Katy Jo Caringer of ECO-CLEAN Solutions