CASE Construction Equipment is providing equipment to support a major, multi-year environmental project.
The manufacturer, partnered with parent company CNH Industrial and media platform 4 Elements, is backing The Beach Care Project, which features research, beach cleaning, scholarships and education, helping communities and recycling waste into new products.
The cleaning operation is led by a CASE 621G Evolution wheel loader equipped with a specialist three-cubic metre skeleton bucket. The loader collects plastic waste from the sand on beaches in Italy and France before it is washed out into the Mediterranean Sea.
The waste collected will be recycled into plastic wheel loader toys.
The Beach Care Project will be extended to clean UK and Spanish beaches in 2022.
Cleaning is only one part of the project. Other outcomes include creating student scholarships at specialist research institutes that may lead to research careers dedicated to the future transformation of beach ecosystems.
Federico Bullo, head of Europe Construction Equipment, explained, “CASE supports many sustainability initiatives designed to foster interest in environmental care and protection. The Beach Care Project is the latest that will see CASE and our partners cleaning beaches to give them back to the community, completing leading edge academic research, delivering education and promoting responsible values among younger generations. The project also showcases the versatility of CASE machines.”
European academic institutes, the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) and French Comité national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), are collaborating to research and analyse the ecosystem, as CASE collects plastic on polluted beaches.
Two Italian beaches were cleaned in November: Foce Varano up to Capoiale (Puglia) and Carini (Sicily). The beaches being cleaned in France during December are the Petite Afrique, Paloma and des Fourmis beaches in Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, between Nice and Monaco.
Federico Bullo added, “From January 2022, over 10,000 Italian and French children will learn about beach ecosystems, as The Beach Care Project is rolled out in schools with educational materials and dedicated lessons. This is just the first phase of the project that aims to involve and raise awareness of all the municipalities bordering the Mediterranean Sea.”
