Problem:

Beaches all over the world are littered with plastics and other garbage and detritus from local sources and from washing up on the shore from sources thousands of miles away.

Solutions:

Efficient beach cleaners that can gather this material and transport it to properly regulated waste and recycling facilities.

In the early 1960s, Harold S. Barber of Naugatuck, Connecticut explored the idea of building a raking prototype to clean beaches of unwanted seaweed, cigarettes, glass, shells, coral, stones, rocks, sticks, and man-made debris including plastic from wet and dry sand with ease. He named the unit the SURF RAKE Model 500.

Mr. Barber’s novel invention quickly proved to be the most effective tool for the emerging beach cleaning industry in the United States. Since then, Barber has sold more beach cleaners around the world than any other brand, being used on six continents and in over 90 countries.

The tractor-towed 600HD, weighing almost 4,000 lb (1,800 kg.) can clean up to 9 ac (3.1 has) an hour, and with a 7 ft (2 m) wide cleaning path. In the 1990s, Rockland of Bedford, Pennsylvania, developed their Beach King featuring a 2.2 cubic yard hopper to take more debris. (h.barber.com)

Over in Europe, Unicorn of Torredembarra, Spain, manufacture a range of six beach cleaners from the Musketeer, a medium-sized, self-drive sifting-type machine with a vibrating mesh for surface cleaning of small areas for cleaning small beaches to the Magnum with its large capacity rear hopper that can unload at a height of 8 ft (2.50 m) and its operating width of 7.5ft (2.30 m.)

Metaljonica in the Teramo Area of Italy make EcoBeach, a macchina puliscispiaggia, powered by an 8.4 hp Honda GX270 unleaded petrol engine.

Until now, tractors towing beach cleaners have been diesel or gasoline-engined, but with the latest developments of the battery-electric tractor, they may soon become cleaner and silent.

Totally electrically driven, the Solarino developed by DronyX in 2013 a remote-controlled beach-cleaning machine, developed in Montemesola in the province of Taranto, Apulia, south eastern Italy by three mechatronics engineers – Alessandro Deodati, Emiliano Petrachi and Giuseppe Vendramin.

The Solarino includes a removable rake that scoops and discards debris. It can also be used to tow up to 2,200 lb (1039 kg) when the rake system is not attached. The Solarino is powered by 3 full isolated gel batteries and also by solar energy. The wide matched tread helps to optimize the traction system performance both on wet and dry sandy terrains. (www.dronyx.com)

Discover solution 32: beer from stale bread

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