BEBOT: Tahoe's Beach Cleaning Robot
The League to Save Lake Tahoe, in collaboration with ECO-CLEAN Solutions, introduces new technology to clean Tahoe's beaches.
The Challenge
In the summer months, Tahoe's beaches are its most popular attraction.
They are also where visitor impacts are most concentrated.
Every year, thousands of pounds of litter accumulate on the beaches surrounding the Lake.
To maintain the Lake’s ecological health and the thriving tourism economy that depends on it, we need solutions that keep the shoreline clean.
Since 2014, the League to Save Lake Tahoe has hosted more than 200 cleanup events in the Tahoe basin and facilitated another 1,700 through its Tahoe Blue Crew program and community-led initiatives.
Over ten years of cleanups, volunteers have removed more than 96,000 pounds of trash from Tahoe's beaches and surrounding areas.
That's equivalent to the weight of roughly 22 pickup trucks, or twelve 40-foot shipping containers.
While volunteer-powered beach cleanup events are crucial in tackling Tahoe's litter issue, it’s challenging for volunteers to spot and remove litter buried under the sand.
Buried trash often includes plastic fragments that degrade into harmful microplastics.
Without intervention, those microplastics end up in Tahoe's waters.
Once microplastics contaminate the Lake, they can decrease water quality and clarity, and they’re practically impossible to remove.
That’s where the BEBOT comes in. This beach cleaning robot specializes in removing litter buried below the surface, including plastic pieces that break down into microplastics.
The BEBOT can serve as the last line of defense against beach litter before it pollutes Lake Tahoe.
About the BEBOT
The BEBOT is an all-electric, solar- and battery-powered, sand sifting robot manufactured by The Searial Cleaners & Poralu Marine .
It can clean over 3,000 square meters (~32,000 square feet) of beach per hour without emitting any greenhouse gases and removes debris from beach sand up to a depth of four inches without degrading habitat or harming native species.
The use of BEBOT on Tahoe's beaches helps protect one of the region's endemic and endangered plant species, the Tahoe yellow cress (TYC).
Before operating the BEBOT on Tahoe beaches, ECO-CLEAN Solutions and the League to Save Lake Tahoe work with partner agencies to have professional surveys conducted at each site for the presence of TYC. Where TYC is identified, enclosure fences are built to protect this important plant.
In many cases, the BEBOT team's TYC survey is the first completed in years, meaning that the team contributes valuable data to the TYC conservation effort.
The BEBOT's ability to remove undetected microplastics while preserving local flora and fauna makes it a crucial tool in solving Tahoe's litter problem.
This new technology could revolutionize beach cleaning practices for local and federal agencies, jurisdictions, resorts, and private landowners.
By partnering with ECO-CLEAN Solutions to pilot the BEBOT, the League to Save Lake Tahoe aims to accelerate the adoption of this technology to regularly clean high-use beaches in the Tahoe basin.
A Test Case
July 4th marks Tahoe's busiest beach holiday.
Around the lake, people flock to public beaches like Zephyr Shoals (pictured here) for an all-day celebration.
Since 2013, the League has spearheaded cleanups on the 5th of July at key beaches around the Lake in an event known as Keep Tahoe Red, White, and Blue.
During the League’s 2022 cleanup event, volunteers removed 3,450 pounds of trash from five beaches around Lake Tahoe. The League’s 2023 cleanup event removed a staggering 8,597 pounds of trash.
At one site in 2022, the BEBOT was deployed after volunteers had combed the beach to test the robot's beach-cleaning ability.
For this test, a group of volunteers were tasked with collecting as much litter as they could find from a designated stretch of the beach.
They returned with 30 pieces of trash.
Then, the BEBOT covered the same area of beach, sifting through the top few inches of sand, and came back with 300 additional pieces of microtrash.
This experiment demonstrates how small, yet harmful litter lurks beneath the surface along the shoreline and highlights the importance of both people and technology in addressing Tahoe's trash problem.
BEBOT Beach Cleanups
The BEBOT has operated for two summer seasons in Tahoe, cleaning high-traffic beaches along the north, east, and south shore of the Lake. No cleanups have been conducted on the west shore of Lake Tahoe, as the rocky substrate prevents the BEBOT from effectively collecting beach litter.
After each cleanup, the BEBOT team sorts and documents the individual litter items collected, contributing to a rich data set of subsurface litter on Tahoe's beaches.
Following each cleanup, the BEBOT team sorts and documents the litter collected. (Connelley Beach cleanup, September 26, 2023)
2022 Cleanups
During its pilot season, the BEBOT conducted 12 cleanups at 10 different beach sites:
- Kings Beach
- Lakeshore Private Beach
- Sand Harbor
- Glenbrook Beach
- Zephyr Shoals
- Nevada Beach (3 cleanups)
- El Dorado Beach
- TKPOA Pavilion Beach
- Tallac Historic Site
- Camp Richardson
In total, the BEBOT cleaned 72,000 square feet of beach area in 2022. That's equivalent to the area of one-and-a-quarter football fields.
2023 Cleanups
In 2023, the BEBOT conducted its first full beach cleanings—covering entire beach areas, rather than just stretches of beach.
It also piloted repeat beach cleanings, completing two cleanups at each of the following sites:
- Kings Beach
- Lakeshore Private Beach
- Tahoe Beach Club
- Connelley Beach
During the 2023 season, the BEBOT cleaned 120,000 square feet of beach area—more than double the area of a football field.
To date, the BEBOT has conducted 20 cleanups at 12 different beaches, removing more than 8,000 individual litter items in the process.
See the chart below for a breakdown of litter items collected by the BEBOT during its first two operational seasons.
Across both of the BEBOT's operational seasons, plastic pieces were the most commonly collected litter item.
2023 BEBOT Beach Cleaning Recap
During its second operational season, the BEBOT piloted full beach cleanings and repeat visits to the same beaches.
Kings Beach State Park
Cleanup dates: July 5 and August 9, 2023 Beach ownership: California State Parks
In 2023, the BEBOT conducted two cleanings at Kings Beach State Park—a heavily trafficked, public beach in Kings Beach, California.
The cleanings covered different stretches of the beach, revealing similar amounts of trash each time. Plastic straw wrappers and other plastic pieces are of particular concern at Kings Beach.
The July 5 cleanup removed 923 pieces of litter and the August 9 cleanup removed another 755 pieces.
Plastic straws and other plastic pieces were the most commonly found litter items at Kings Beach.
Tahoe Beach Club
Cleanup dates: June 22 and October 26, 2023 Beach ownership: Tahoe Beach Club
The BEBOT was deployed twice at the Tahoe Beach Club shoreline near Stateline, Nevada: Once in June and again in October.
The first cleaning revealed mostly plastic pieces, along with foam and glass. In total, the June cleanup removed 265 pieces of litter.
When the BEBOT returned in October, hidden trash items had returned to the subsurface but in much smaller numbers. In total, the October cleanup removed 55 pieces of litter, or roughly 20% of the litter collected from the same area in June.
The BEBOT collected roughly one-fifth the number of litter items at the October cleaning compared to the June cleaning.
Lakeshore Private Beach
Cleanup dates: June 30 and August 7, 2023 Beach ownership: Private
The BEBOT cleaned two separate stretches of the beach along Lakeshore Boulevard in Incline Village in 2023. The second cleanup on August 7 followed multiple events, which may have contributed to higher litter totals.
During the June 30 cleanup, the BEBOT removed 244 pieces of litter. On August 7, the BEBOT removed 662 pieces.
At both cleanup sites, plastic pieces were the category of highest concern.
Litter totals were higher at the Lakeshore beach following several private events.
Connelley Beach
Cleanup dates: August 24 and September 27, 2023 Beach ownership: City of South Lake Tahoe
The BEBOT marked a major milestone at Connelley Beach when it conducted its first full public beach cleaning on August 24. It returned for a second cleaning one month later.
Both cleanings revealed large concentrations of subsurface litter. Unlike cleanings at other beaches, glass pieces outnumbered plastic pieces beneath the surface.
The BEBOT removed 885 pieces of litter during the first cleaning of Connelley Beach, and another 1641 pieces during the second. This test demonstrates that high-traffic public beaches may require multiple cleanings per season to control subsurface litter.
Unlike other beaches, Connelley Beach had a higher concentration of glass pieces than plastic.
Results
Findings from two summers of BEBOT cleanings:
- Compared to visible litter items collected by volunteers, the BEBOT detects and removes up to 10x the number of items hidden beneath the surface of the sand.
- Even following full beach cleanings, subsurface litter returns to Tahoe's beaches during a single summer season.
- Plastic litter is the most prevalent form of subsurface litter along Tahoe's beaches.
- Public beaches are far “dirtier” than private beaches per square foot, but notable concentrations of litter are found at private beaches as well, particularly following large events.
- Public beaches that lack trash cans, dumpsters, and other litter abatement infrastructure accumulate more litter than those with adequate infrastructure.
- Organic litter items (e.g., pistachio and sunflower seed shells, orange peels, etc.) are prevalent along Tahoe's beaches. These items may harm the Lake's ecology.
- The BEBOT is easy to operate and provides an engaging educational opportunity for kids to observe (and pilot!) themselves.
Next steps
In its first two operational seasons, the BEBOT has already made a big impact in Tahoe, conducting 20 cleanups at 12 different beaches along the Lake Tahoe shoreline.
In the process, the BEBOT removed more than 8,000 litter items that may have become pollution in Lake Tahoe.
In 2024, the League and ECO-CLEAN are bringing back the BEBOT (plus other trash-combating and invasive weed-eating robots) to take beach and lake cleaning to the next level.
The BEBOT will appear at several beaches in 2024, completing two full cleanings at each site—once in the early summer season and again in the late season.
The cleanings will be conducted in partnership with the League to Save Lake Tahoe, the United States Forest Service, the City of South Lake Tahoe, the North Tahoe Community Alliance, Desert Research Institute, and Tahoe Beach Club.
To learn more about BEBOT plans for 2024 or to request a cleaning of your favorite beach, contact BEBOT@keeptahoeblue.org or visit the Keep Tahoe Blue website .
