June 25, 2025 If you’ve been following the tech news lately, it seems that intelligent robots are showing up everywhere — and now, they’re even taking summer jobs at the beach.
Canada’s first beach-cleaning robot is patrolling Ontario parks this summer, removing litter and sifting sand. But while it’s a relief not to step on discarded debris, the robot’s real mission is more serious: stopping plastic waste before it enters the water.
The BeBot, a remotely operated electric machine, began work this week at Sibbald Point Provincial Park on Lake Simcoe. It uses sand-sifting technology to collect plastic, glass, metal, and paper debris — cleaning up to 3,000 square metres per hour for as long as eight hours. It runs on battery power, includes a solar panel, and cruises at just under three kilometres per hour.
“This technology allows us to capture some of the larger pieces of plastic before they actually enter the water,” said Melissa DeYoung, CEO of the environmental group Pollution Probe, which is launching the pilot in partnership with the Ontario government. Larger plastics that make it into lakes often break down into microplastics, which harm freshwater ecosystems.
After Sibbald Point, the BeBot will visit four more provincial parks this summer: Inverhuron on Lake Huron, Long Point on Lake Erie, and Sandbanks and Darlington on Lake Ontario.
The robot is part of Pollution Probe’s Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup initiative, launched in 2020. It joins more than 160 plastic-capturing technologies already deployed, supported by nearly $1 million in Ontario government funding since 2021.
DeYoung noted the robot won’t solve the plastics problem outright — but it plays a crucial role. “We’ll never be able to remove all of the plastic that’s found in the environment,” she said, “but what we can do is collect data on the types of plastic we’re finding.”
