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The Surf Rake is the beach litter removal machine Barber first built in 1966 to clear man-made debris from sand quickly and safely. It removes glass, plastic, and submerged sharp objects while aerating and grooming the sand in the same pass. For resorts and municipalities keeping beaches visitor-ready year-round, here’s how mechanized litter removal replaces hours of hand raking.
The Surf Rake’s tine-and-conveyor system cleans large beach areas at up to 15 acres per hour — far faster than any manual crew. It collects debris as small as cigarette butts, bottle caps, and glass shards to as large as filled garbage bags in a single continuous pass.
The Surf Rake removes plastic bottles, cans, bags, wrappers, cigarette butts, syringes, glass, foam, and virtually any solid debris.
Yes. In addition to litter removal, the Surf Rake aerates and grooms the sand with each pass — improving sand texture and drainage. Regular mechanical cleaning produces a better beach surface experience beyond cleanliness alone.
Manual raking is impractical for large beaches — a single Surf Rake replaces dozens of labor-hours per cleaning cycle. For beaches with thousands of daily visitors, mechanical cleaning is the only viable approach to maintaining consistent standards.
Frequency depends on visitor volume, proximity to urban areas, and seasonal patterns. Many resort beaches clean daily in high season; Busy municipal beaches also clean daily, while less crowded ones may clean several times per week.