Can’t we use Honda technology to clean up
all this trash on the beach?
From its very beginnings, the Honda has always tried to use technology to help people, and this desire is engrained in the hearts of every Honda associate. When these ATV engineers saw that the beach was covered in trash, they immediately felt a sense of mission.
The ATVs, with their ability to operate in a wide variety of terrains and maneuverability, could help Honda create a breakthrough solution that would help rejuvenate the clean sandy beaches. The members of the development team couldn’t help but wonder if it was fate that led them to stumble upon such a dirty beach as they traveled between mountainous areas, ranches, and sandy beaches during their research into the marketability of ATVs.
Let’s build a machine to cleanup small bits of trash
that usually take too much time and trouble to collect.
The ATV is the perfect vehicle to drive on sandy beaches, and Honda had the manufacturing capability, technology and experience to create a compact yet revolutionary piece of equipment that could be towed by an ATV to collect trash without using any other power source.
There were already large-size beach cleaners on the market that could pick up large pieces of trash. So, Honda’s engineers set out to make a device that could pick up the small bits that couldn’t be collected by the large beach cleaners. It takes a lot of time and effort to find and gather up small pieces of trash on a large beach, which made it impractical to do so. This was where the Honda-developed equipment would come in. Since all of the team members were working on this project concurrent with their existing work, they somehow managed to find time between their regular duties to discuss and decide on the direction of the trash collector.
The team decided that the single serve liquid coffee creamer cup provided a good representation of small trash. They immediately collected creamer cups to be used as samples. Even though this was for development purposes, unused creamer couldn’t be wasted, so they went to the Honda R&D cafeteria and, while people stared at them in curiosity, rummaged through the garbage cans and collected as many empty creamer cups as they could find. The associate who happily carried this trash back to the development room was Taiji Hashimoto, an engineer at Honda R&D Co., Ltd. Prototype Production Division, who was put in charge of prototype production of the trash collector.
A spectacular failure... followed by more ideas.
In the year 2000, soon after the project was launched, Hashimoto immediately set about building a prototype trash collector. The prototype was made by stretching piano wire over a metal frame to form a mesh grille that could sift the sand for smaller pieces of trash. Its legs were attached to a sled designed to glide over the sand.
“With this device, we should be able to collect a whole lot of small trash and debris,” said one team member with great anticipation.
The team then set out for the beach with high hopes for the project, pulling the prototype collector with an ATV to test it in a real-world situation. However, as soon as the ATV began moving, their hopes were shattered. The leading edge of the collector quickly sank into the sand and couldn’t be pulled more than a single meter. It failed to collect any trash at all. In other words, it was a spectacular failure. What may have looked good in the drawing room came completely apart in actual operation. Every member of the team soon realized that there are some things that just can’t be understood without going to the spot.
The team then immediately began working on its next idea: a rake-like collector that was completely different from the first basket-shaped prototype. This new design was based on the rake-like tool that is often pulled behind tractors on ranches and farms to gather up grass. A number of long pins were attached to the underside of a raft-like frame made of metal pipes, with the idea that the pins would catch on the trash and debris. The team went back to the beach and pulled this new rake by the ATV. The rake efficiently gathered trash and debris as the pins caught larger trash such as empty cans and plastic bottles, as well as pieces of rope and plastic bags buried in the sand.
However, because this steel rake weighed more than 40kg, it was difficult for people to lift it to get rid of the trash and debris from underneath the rake. To address this issue, the team developed two bridge-shaped rails which lift the rake. As the width of the rake is wider than the width between the two rails, when the ATV pulls the rake between the rails, the rake gets lifted, leaving the trash and debris on the ground. Because of the trapezoidal shape of the rails, after being lifted once, the rake gradually comes down to the ground. This equipment was later developed into a Trash Collection Station. This is how the first beach cleaner, the original model of today’s Sand Rake, was completed in the year 2000.
Honda’s dogged pursuit of technology finds a unique solution
to the problem of picking up small bits of trash.
Although Honda’s first rake-type beach cleaner proved to be a success, it still wasn’t able to pick up the small bits of trash that the Honda engineers initially set their sights on. Instead, raking the beach tended to dig up buried trash, which made it look as if there was even more trash than before the rake was used.
After the raking, Hashimoto looked at the sand and said, “If we rake the beach repeatedly, we might be able to remove some of the trash and debris, but it’s still not efficient. We also need to pick up the smaller bits of trash,” he reminded the team, “which was our first idea.”
The development team then tried out other ideas, but it was still unable to successfully pick up the smaller pieces of trash and debris. One day, after numerous failures on the beach, Yoshihiro Kimura, who was in charge of testing the beach cleaner, increased the speed of the ATV he was using to pull the rake. Like most Honda engineers, he felt compelled to try all kinds of things before giving up.
Carefully observing the rake, Kimura noticed a change in the way the sand moved.
“When the speed was increased, the rake pins kicked up the sand, causing sand to fly up with a lot of force,” Kimura said.
Kimura thought, “If the sand is being tossed up, then the trash must be flying too.” The team immediately spread out a net over the rake. If the trash was really being tossed up along with the sand, then it would be caught in the net while the sand filtered through to the bottom. The team tried this and discovered that their prediction was correct. The smaller pieces of trash were indeed being caught in the net. This truly was an unexpected solution discovered right at the spot.
“The dry sand just went flying, and the smaller trash and debris were being picked out cleanly. I thought this could work as a single system, with the rake removing the large debris and the net sifting out the smaller stuff,” said Kimura.
In addition to the rake-type, a screen-type beach cleaner was developed, which tossed up the sand and trash to be sifted with a mesh grille.
The Sand Rake equipped with numerous pins is dragged through the sand to dig up buried trash and debris.
Envisioning a beach cleaner that is not only ecologically
responsible but also capable of handling any type of sand.
Next, the team set out to explore rake pin lengths. They recognized that 15 cm pins create too much resistance and bend even when reinforced. However, 5 cm pins proved to be way too short and wouldn’t properly catch the debris. The team also needed to consider the bigger picture of the beach cleaner’s impact on the environment, including the local ecosystem. A study of the creatures living on sandy beaches revealed that most of them live deeper than 10 cm below the ground surface, and sea turtle eggs, as just one example, are found at a depth of around 50 cm. Based on these facts, the research team continued testing while also consulting with a college professor of ecology. They finally decided on a pin length of 10 cm.
With the overall design direction of the beach cleaner settled, the team loaded all the equipment onto a large truck and traveled around the country to conduct testing. The team tried out the actual equipment at the spot, made realistic decisions based on the understanding of the real situation and gradually advanced the beach cleaner by solving every little problem that arose.
One of the most difficult issues facing the development team was the impact of the sand quality - which varies from beach to beach - on the beach cleaner itself. There were beaches with sand with very fine particles, hard soil-like sand, and sand which consists of a considerable amount of gravel and pebbles. In order for this beach cleaner to be used on beaches all over Japan, it needed to be made compatible with all types of sand.
The development team continued improving the beach cleaner by carrying out trials on beaches all over Japan, from Okinawa in the south to Hokkaido in the north. About a year and a half after the first beach cleaner was developed, the team finalized the basic specifications of the Beach Cleaner, consisting of Sand Rake, Sand Screen and Trash Collection Station. This, together with an ATV and a trailer to carry the beach cleaner, finally completed the Beach Cleaning Set.
The Trash Collection Station, a structure with two bridge-shaped rails. The trash and debris collected by Sand Rake and Sand Screen are efficiently gathered at the Station and sorted.
This type of Sand Screen nicknamed the Bata-Bata features a steel front bar that rakes up small pieces of trash and debris along with the sand and the structure that flaps the screen (mesh grille) up and down, shaking to sift the sand and gather up only trash and debris.
As beach cleanup activities progressed,
the Beach Cleaner needed to be advanced.
Even after the completion of the development of the Beach Cleaning Set, the team members personally continued beach cleanup activities all across Japan on a voluntary basis. However, the turning-point of the Honda beach cleanup activities came in late 2003 when the development of the Beach Cleaner and Honda beach cleanup activities, being carried out as the voluntary work of Honda associates, were approved as an official initiative of Honda.
In 2006, a new project was launched as one of the company’s social contribution activities under the name “Honda Beach Cleanup Project,” and it evolved into a joint activity conducted with people in local communities across Japan. This allowed Honda to fully demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of its Beach Cleaner.
However, evolving this project into an official social contribution activity of Honda raised new issues. The project was often asked for a Beach Cleaner that could be used in the rain. Unfortunately, one of the sand screen’s weaknesses was that its grille was prone to clogging when the sand is wet.
In the past, Honda volunteers could simply cancel the beach cleanup if it rained. But that no longer worked once many people from a local community got involved. In order to work together with local volunteers, who come all the way to participate, and to convey Honda’s passion and commitment, Honda could no longer cancel beach cleanup events just because of a little rain.
Remarkably, this issue was solved by a casual remark from a company retiree who had volunteered to help with the project.
He said, “You know, if you shake the grille like this, the sand will fall right off.”
Seeing that the development team was struggling with the wet sand, he nonchalantly flapped the screen grille by raising and lowering it quickly, and, just as he said, the sand fell right off. Sometimes the straightforward approach is more effective than thinking too hard about a problem.
The other members who witnessed this flapping demonstration quickly devised a way to do the same in actual operation. They mounted tires behind the screen and attached a cam to its axle, creating equipment that converts the rotational force of the tires into vertical motion, which shakes the screen. The team conducted various tests and identified that an array of four separate cams was the most effective way to shake the screen. Thus, in 2009, the vibrating screen, (nicknamed the Bata-Bata) was created, which enabled the Beach Cleaner to be used in a wider range of beach cleanup activities... even on wet sand. Coincidentally, the name Bata-Bata was also the nickname Honda used for its first motorized bicycle, which was mounted with an auxiliary engine, and made a similar kind of sound as it ran down the road.
Dreaming of a world where Beach Cleaners aren’t needed.
Aiming for sandy beaches where anyone can walk barefoot.
Participants first pick up easily noticeable large pieces of trash and debris by hand, then Honda Beach Cleaners are used to collect less noticeable and smaller pieces of trash and debris in areas where picking up by hand has already been done.
With the sand screen able to be used in a little rain, Honda’s beach cleanup activities have continued to expand nationwide since May 2006, with the cooperation of local communities. Since 2009, these activities have been carried out across Japan as a part of Honda’s social contribution activities, mainly through Honda prefectural associations*2.
Likewise, while this project grew and continued, the suite of Honda Beach Cleaning equipment also has evolved. One piece of added equipment is called the Guru-Guru, or Rotary-drum Sand Screen. Inspired by the classic cement mixer, it features a sand screen inside of a rotary-drum, which sifts pieces of trash out of a trash-sand mixture. Originally developed to help remove wet trash and debris found at the water’s edge, where a Sand Rake and Sand Screen can’t efficiently be used, the Guru-Guru also is used to pick out trash and debris that may have fallen around the Trash Collection Station. The introduction of this rotating sand screen enabled beach cleanup participants to enjoy some hands-on experiences with the equipment such as tossing the trash-sand mixture into the rotating screen, spinning the drum by hand or towing it to spin the drum.
Moreover, in 2013, Honda altered its Monpal electric cart, which does not require a driver’s license and targets mainly senior citizens, and developed the Beach Monpal which is tailored to be ridden on the beach and tow the Guru-Guru, the rotary-drum Sand Screen. The ATV could only be ridden by Honda staff who had undergone a special training course, but the Beach Monpal could be ridden by anyone with just a simple explanation of the vehicle’s operation. Honda engineers developed the Beach Monpal with the hope that more people will experience the Honda Beach Cleaner firsthand and enjoy participating in beach cleanup activities.
The development of the Beach Cleaner was a series of challenges driven by the desire of Honda engineers to help people. Continuous improvements were made over the years, and the Beach Cleaner is now being used to support beach cleanup activities throughout Japan, with a total of 406 beach cleanups conducted at 216 beaches between May 2006 and March 2023.
This rotary-drum sand screen (Guru-Guru) picks out trash by shoveling the trash-sand mixture into the drum and rotating it to sift the sand. The rotary-drum screen can be used at the water’s edge, or in areas of the beach where the sand is wet.
Although the Beach Cleanup Project has evolved into a big thing, Honda’s passion and commitment toward the activity remain unchanged.
Honda believes that we should never leave beach cleanup activities to the machines. Machines can only play a supporting role; the most important thing is for each participant to pick up trash with their own hands, which will in turn foster more of a desire to keep the beaches clean. Honda also believes that seeing and experiencing clean sandy beaches will encourage people not to thoughtlessly litter, but rather to pick up any trash when they see it.
This project, where Honda technologies provide support for people who try to do things with their own power and initiatives, will continue to evolve into the future.
We hope that one day the spirit of maintaining a beautiful environment will take root in everyone’s mind, and beaches where people can comfortably walk barefoot will become the norm.
- A collective name for local associations comprised of Honda dealers in each respective prefecture of Japan. Since 2021, each association is being operated as an autonomous organization independent of Honda.
The Beach Monpal towing the Guru-Guru.
Honda Beach Clean Universal Project
A beach cleanup activity conducted with associates in wheelchairs. Most of them stepped onto the beach for the first time, which they had only seen from afar. They were impressed with the beach cleanup activity, while enjoying the sound of the waves and the scent of the tide.
June 5, 2022
