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Robots remove plastic from Milwaukee beaches and waterways & raise public awareness

PixieDrone testing the water at McKinley boat launch run earlier in July.
Katie Rademacher
/
Milwaukee Riverkeeper
PixieDrone testing the water at McKinley boat launch run earlier in July.

Milwaukee Riverkeeper is a local nonprofit that’s been striving to achieve swimmable and fishable waters for nearly 30 years. “Cleanup” is Milwaukee Riverkeeper’s middle name. Now, it’s adding a couple of high-tech tools to its arsenal.

Milwaukee Riverkeeper is officially introducing two different kinds of robots designed to pick up plastics on beaches and in waterways.

Milwaukee Riverkeeper’s Cheryl Nenn waited at the McKinley boat launch for one of them, called a PixieDrone. Smaller than a paddle boat and lower to the water, it’s designed to capture floating bits of plastic. Plastic pollution is a huge problem in Milwaukee’s waterways.

Milwaukee Riverkeeper's Cheryl Nenn checks over the PixieDrone before sending it out to inspect the shores of Lake Michigan.
Susan Bence
/
Milwaukee Public Radio
Milwaukee Riverkeeper's Cheryl Nenn checks over the PixieDrone before sending it out to inspect the shores of Lake Michigan.

“It’s normally 90% plastic we see out here. So, the robot will be cleaning up the floatable plastic that gets stuck behind piers and the riverwalk. But there’s some concern that it might get stuck,” Nenn says.

So, a kayak or two will chaperone the “Pixie” in case it needs rescuing.

Nenn explains how this project came to life. “Yeah, so we were approached by a group that’s called the Council of the Great Lakes Region and they had some funding from Meijer— the grocery store Meijer — to purchase a lot of these plastic-cleaning robots and so they own the robots but we were given funding to run them,” Nenn says.

The problem plastic poses in our environment is daunting. “Only 8% of the plastic in the U.S. is recycled. If you drive around cities like Milwaukee — we have a lot of trash. When it rains it’s washed into a storm drain and then eventually into one of our rivers and eventually into the lake, which is our drinking water supply. So this is a huge problem, and this is a small solution, but hopefully this is about education,” Nenn says.

Katie Rademacher says the Bebot's value is two-pronged - it helps collect plastic and provides an educational opportunity. People walking by say what the heck is that thing!
Susan Bence
/
WUWM
Katie Rademacher says the Bebot's value is two-pronged - it helps collect plastic and provides an educational opportunity. People walking by say what the heck is that thing!

Ten miles south at Bay View Beach, Nenn’s colleague Katie Rademacher is working out the kinks of Riverkeepers’ other robotic plastic picker-upper.

“I think there’s a loose connection somewhere,” says Rademacher. This is a BeBot. It’s about the size of a small riding mower. Its caterpillar treads roll across the beach. “It’s pushing the sand through, collecting the plastic, and then putting the sand back,” Rademacher says.

With the push of a button, the Bebot lifts and then dumps its load to the ground.

“We do have to sift through everything it finds as well,” Rademacher says.

Despite to assistance of the Bebot, there's still physical labor involved in removing plastic from the beach.
Susan Bence
/
WUWM
Despite to assistance of the Bebot, there's still physical labor involved in removing plastic from the beach.

Rademacher means pick through by hand. And the process doesn’t end there.

“We take the plastic back to the office — or work with volunteer groups — and sift through, and we kind of quantify what we find. And additionally, anything that has a brand on it, we’re trying to do like a brand audit. Just so we can kind of see what we’re finding the most of,” Rademacher says.

Rademacher says this summer is about learning the nuances of the BeBot and the PixieDrone. Next summer, “We’ll be rocking and rolling,” she says.

A small fraction of plastic Milwaukee Riverkeeper hopes to remove from area waterways and beaches.
Susan Bence
/
Milwaukee Public Radio
A small fraction of plastic Milwaukee Riverkeeper hopes to remove from area waterways and beaches.

There’s no telling how much plastic the two robots will collect on Milwaukee’s beaches and rivers. And what will they do with all that garbage? Milwaukee Riverkeeper says stay tuned — a work of art might arise from the plastic — something beautiful and educational.

I leave Rademacher and her colleagues at Bay View Beach. “When it works, it’s hard to stop because there’s so much plastic out here,” Rademacher says.

Susan is WUWM's environmental reporter.
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