The famous beaches in Lake Tahoe got covered in litter following this year's weekend celebration of the Fourth of July. As volunteers gathered to pick up the trash left by tourists, they were assisted by a machine known as BEBOT, short for "beach robot."
The Rubbish Aftermath of the Fourth of July
The Lake Tahoe region has been famous for offering plenty of festive opportunities to spend the Fourth of July. From beach parties to summer skiing and fireworks displays, the local residents are joined by thousands of tourists in celebrating the federal holiday. The tourism authority of the area confirms that the Fourth of July weekend is considered one of the busiest weekends in the area.
Being swarmed with visitors comes at a price. Every year, the celebration ends with a scene of litter the tourist leaves on the beach. On July 5, 2022, over 3,400 pounds of trash were gathered by volunteers from Tahoe beaches. The accumulated garbage is double what they collected from the 2021 event, where 1,456 pounds of rubbish was removed from 10 beaches.
According to environmental advocates, the Fourth of July is one of the hardest times of the year when it comes to protecting Lake Tahoe. As a response to this challenge, environmental organizations around the lake have been promoting campaigns to reduce the impact of tourism during holiday celebrations. Some event organizers suggest proactively changing how Independence Day is celebrated using a more sustainable approach. In addition, government authorities also send enforcement staff to help control the crowd and the accumulation of their trash.
READ ALSO: Microplastics Are Lake Problems, Too!
Computerized Custodian to the Rescue
A beach cleaning drive was established at the Tahoe Club between Edgewood and Nevada to save Lake Tahoe from pollution and maintain its famous clear blue color. This is a joint project of the environmental group League to Save Lake Tahoe and another non-profit organization ECO-CLEAN Solutions.
Volunteers are accompanied by BEBOT, a remote-controlled, solar-powered device made by two French companies: The Searial Cleaners and Poralu Marine. Roughly the size of a riding lawn mower, the self-driving device moves at 2 miles an hour.
BEBOT can sift through the sands at Kings Beach, Zephyr Cove, and other popular beaches in Tahoe and collect trash up to four inches below the surface. As it methodically explores through the sand, it can pick up bottle caps, cigarette butts, and other forms of trash that would otherwise end up in the alpine lake.
Between June and October, BEBOT canvassed 72,000 square feet of sand on 11 beaches, including Sand Harbor, Tallac Historic Site, Kings Beach, and Camp Richardson. Of the 4,497 pieces of litter collected on those beaches, the majority of them were plastic (45%), followed by bottle caps (11%), straws (11%), cigarette butts (9%), broken glass (8%), and other forms of miscellaneous debris.
Although BEBOT did not work very well on beaches with rocky surfaces, the experiment was a success overall. The league and its partners plan to order another unit of BEBOT for double trash-collecting capacity.
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