Enviro Buggy hits the beach from Bedfordview
The Enviro Buggy, designed and built by Bedfordview resident Luigi Faccio, vacuums the beaches of Cape Town, harvesting micro-plastics and other discarded waste items.
A Bedfordview invention is changing the world.
The Enviro Buggy, designed and built by resident Luigi Faccio, vacuums the beaches of Cape Town harvesting micro-plastics and other discarded waste.
The buggy was created for NPO ocean initiative Sea The Bigger Picture and has revolutionised how volunteer teams clean the beaches in the Mother City.
Luigi told the NEWS the device was particularly helpful recently in picking up nurdles.
Nurdles are tiny pellets of virgin plastic and they are responsible for a near environmental crisis in 2017 when two container loads spilled into the ocean off the coast of Richards Bay and Durban.
“Tonnes of the stuff ended up in the ocean and washed up on beaches as far down as Cape Town,” Luigi said.
In October, another wave of nurdles washed up along South Africa’s coastline.
“The problem is that birds and sea turtles don’t know the difference between nurdles and food, so they eat them and die.”
In mid-2018 Luigi’s daughter, who works with Sea The Bigger Picture, asked him to help create something that would assist to pick up the nurdles and other discarded items.
“She said something like a vacuum cleaner would be great.”
By October 2019 the Enviro Buggy was cleaning beaches in Cape Town.
But Luigi is not done, he is already working on an upgraded buggy.
“I looked at using solar on the buggy, but it won’t work. It just uses too much power. I opted for a seven kilowatt petrol motor. The first buggy works on an electric and alternator motor system to propel it forward and backward.”
He said the response to the buggy had been fantastic, even receiving international attention.
“It’s wasn’t created for only beaches. Enviro Buggy can be used anywhere, in parks, on roads and along rivers,” Luigi said.
He added that the device is able to effortlessly suck up 500ml plastic bottles, cigarette buds, straws and more.
“It comes standard with a 100mm hose but this can be changed for a smaller one to get into those nooks and crannies. Just like a home vacuum would.”
Ninety-nine per cent of the items collected by the Enviro Buggy can be recycled.
Luigi believes the problem goes far deeper than cleaning the environment.
“I can make hundreds of these but until we as humans learn to be responsible towards out planet, it won’t make a difference.”
He is an avid “wildlifer” and chooses to spend as much time as possible in the bush.
“Even in some of the most remote places where we have to take our own water, you’ll find a plastic bottle,” Luigi said.
The Bedfordview inventor has lived in the area his entire life and is a fitter and turner by trade.
Luigi has over 50 years of experience as an engineer.
“This is not about making money. It’s about making a difference and helping the planet.”
He hopes to get buy-in for investment from large corporations and businesses to produce more Enviro Buggys and to get support from governments and municipalities to implement the device in metros to help clean cities.
“If we don’t do something now, our children are not going to have a good time cleaning our mess,” Luigi said.
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