Glass beach, California

Published on Mon, Oct 10, 2011 by

Post filled in: Other

The place – Glass Beach, California; what are we talking about ? Just see for yourself.

Seems nice, doesn’t it ? Well, in the first half of the 20th century, people used to come there to throw away all their dump, including bottles, toasters, TVs, and even cars! Everything lasted for almost one hundred years, until people finally realized what a mistake they had done.

In 1967, the North Coast Water Quality Board and city leaders closed the area and several cleanup programs have taken place, but the result today is what you see here.

However, recently, it seems that nature has started its own ‘clean up program’, roughing up the edges and making the beach an attraction point for thousands of tourists each year, who come to take home a little glassy souvenir – even though that’s illegal, since the officials took over the beach.

Nevertheless, Glass beach remains a living testament of what careless pollution and lack of concern about the environment can create. Hopefully, we can learn from this kind of things, while we still can.

Written by

Andrei is no scientist, but from an early age, he has been fascinated by science; that's why he went to college, and signed up for Geophysics. Feeling that there's a huge gap between science and average people, he rallied TP, started ZME Science, and gave it a green twist too.

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  • Adam

    “Nevertheless, Glass beach remains a living testament of what careless
    pollution and lack of concern about the environment can create.
    Hopefully, we can learn from this kind of things, while we still can.”

    Funny, the message I got from this is we need to make more of these awesome beaches…

  • Hurinfan

    I’m a little confused. Was the last light sarcastic? ‘Cause this beach is awesome!

  • Hurinfan

    Line not light

  • Scot

    hmm… I wonder what other stuff we could dump in nature that could turn into something awesome in 40 years.

  • Francis

    Just goes to show you that nature will take in everything man has created and will recycle it into itself. Rock isnt biodegradable, but its part of nature. Now glass has become the same thing here.

    George Carlin was right.

  • http://www.facebook.com/tom.mccool Tom McCool

    What we are seeing is not solely the result of nature. The beach had to be cleaned up first. The article states that the site was a dumping ground for a lot more than just glass. The article mentions “several clean up programs” had to take place before the beach became what you see here. The polished glass remants are what was left AFTER the clean up. I would like to see photos of what this beach looked like before the clean up. So this is not about how nature has reclaimed the beach, but how humans had to clean up their crap BEFORE the beach became what it is today.

  • Justinsammon

    i feel sorry for whoever wrote this. you must not be fun to hang out with

  • Ns53

     I’ve been to Fort Bragg more times than
    I can count and the locals encourage taking home the glass. You’re
    certainly not going to get a ticket for taking home some glass if a
    cop sees you’re kids with some. The glass is mostly from car windows
    and these photos exaggerate the amount of colored glass there is in
    the little cove it’s self. It’s mostly just a top layer of white
    (clear), brown, green glass and some polished wood. You’ll be lucky
    to find any reds or blues. But you will see a rusted old car body
    sticking part way out of the ground, which looks pretty neat.
    I
    find this whole article a little pointless. Yes, trashing the
    environment is bad, but people generally didn’t have the same
    awareness or understanding that we do today. If anything this article
    only promotes dumping stuff into the sea. I mean look how neat that
    glass turned out. If you want show people that wrongs in trashing our
    environment then write something about the great garbage patch or
    something that will make people want to share it.

  • Pingback: Weekend what we’re reading: Leaning Big Ben, airlines learn from Pan Am, Glass Beach

  • K Parker

    … Here we see the Earth as a self-correcting machine, taking human litter and turning it into a beautiful beach. 

  • Changingoftimes

    hopefully you can learn some grammar

  • http://twitter.com/MikeShawToday Mike Shaw

    Glass beach is beautiful.  Hopefully, there will be a viewing area, kind of a pier that you can stroll on.

    Thanks!
    Mike
    http://www.tardigrade.us

  • Dan

    Went there the other day. Visitors have taken most of the big and interesting glass pieces. Photos above are nothing like the current state of that beach…

  • Santi Cahyaningrum

    what a beautiful sand ever! this is the only one sand that made from glasses, so it makes tourist picking up the glass. save the glass.
    kindly check the web http://www.jakpost.travel :D

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