CASE supports The Beach Care Project, driving environmental research, education and cleaning plastic from beaches

CASE Construction Equipment, partnered with parent company CNH Industrial and media platform 4 Elements, is supporting The Beach Care Project. This pioneering multi-year environmental programme features research, beach cleaning, scholarships and education, giving back to communities and recycling waste into new products.

The cleaning is led by a CASE 621G Evolution wheel loader equipped with a specialist three-cubic metre skeleton bucket. The wheel loader collects plastic waste from the sand on beaches in Italy and France, preventing it from being washed out into the Mediterranean Sea. The waste collected by the CASE machine, helped by local primary school children, will then be recycled into plastic wheel loader toys, therefore providing a circular economy.

The Beach Care Project demonstrates CASE’s core value of helping build communities, and in later phases will be extended to clean UK and Spanish beaches. However, cleaning is only one part of the project, which is underpinned by research by leading European research institutions. 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 explains: “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.”

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As a great example of the circular economy, collecting, analysing, recycling and reusing and distributing, multiple partners are involved in The Beach Care Project. Leading 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. Plastic recycling technology specialists are recycling the waste into usable form for a manufacturer to turn into CASE wheel loader toys. An educational organisation is creating materials to promote the adoption of sustainable lifestyles in schools.

Further support comes from the celebrity endorsers of the initiative, who are active supporters of sustainability causes and education, promoting environmental issues to their huge numbers of fans and followers. They are the Italian TV presenter Roberta Morise, and Sergio Parisse, an Italian-Argentinian rugby player currently playing for RC Toulonnais, who is the all-time most-capped player for the Italian national team.

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. In 2022, the project will continue with Spanish and UK beaches.

Bullo concludes: “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.”

The Beach Care Project is a three-year project by CASE, a brand of CNH Industrial, in partnership with 4 Elements, a content factory of multimedia projects with sustainability themes.