"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Picture a beautiful beach spanning miles of coastline, gently lapped by aqua-colored water — and sprinkled with glass." "Faced with the constant erosion of Florida's beaches, Broward County officials are exploring using recycled glass — crushed into tiny grains and mixed with regular sand — to help fill gaps." "It's only natural, backers of the idea say, since sand is the main ingredient in glass." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070826/ap_on_...c5qC1ljVgkE1vAI
Why are beaches eroding? This is a nice bandaid but I hope that they also consider more long term solutions when implementing new ideas such as whether or not an area has been depleted of the native fauna that was once present and that had retained the sand in place. Looks like they are least considering the usefulness of the reefs that provide immense protection from degradation.
This has been done for years in places like Australia, btw. Crushed glass is a nice, inert, filler product.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rae Vynn @ Aug 28 2007, 12:52 PM) [snapback]503299[/snapback]</div> Yes, much better than dredging our oceans for replacement sand. Yikes - I think sand is great performing grit for birds aiding in digestion but can this glass cut wildlife's stomachs et al if accidentally ingested? Just thought of this. I'm sure not or they'd know about it in places where this is already done, right?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Aug 28 2007, 02:39 PM) [snapback]503322[/snapback]</div> And better than the needles and medical waste we used to get on Lake Erie beaches. :blink: Tom
The way I understand it, is the glass is crushed very fine, and does not have sharper edges than natural sand does. I have heard that crushed glass has been used, in years past, in concrete and asphalt, as filler/sand, making for pretty sparkly surfaces. I live close to the ocean, and beach glass is common. It doesn't take long for the ocean to smooth glass into rounded shapes, so I would think that the longer the crushed glass was on the beach, the smoother and smoother it gets.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Aug 28 2007, 11:59 AM) [snapback]503269[/snapback]</div> I would say the main reason the beaches are eroding is that they were man-made to begin with. Tourists like nice sandy beaches so the hotels trucked in lots of nice white sand. Of course it constantly gets eroded away because sand beaches ebb and flow but when you put billions of dollars of hotels in the way they suddenly are suppose to stay put. :blink:
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jhinton @ Aug 28 2007, 08:12 PM) [snapback]503555[/snapback]</div> Indeed. My first thought was "what a waste of a renewable product". The stuff just gonna move down the coast (or up it) like all of the sand that they've been dumping there. They're pissing in the wind. It's amazing how much energy people will expend fighting nature instead of working with it.
I know some beaches are man made but had no idea the extent to which we've installed man made, extensive beaches along coasts. Can I just say - STUPID! Good for tourism but how much of this income is offset by the upkeep expense? I wonder who would be observing the natural world and envisage that it was a good idea to put a bunch of light weight sand in an ecosystem typically comprised of fairly high winds and pounding waves and strong current.
