This is not the beach glass I like collecting, we find a lot of glass that is like this. As much as we like collecting beach glass and people make jewelry out of it, glass is bad on a beach for many reasons. Due to our passion for beach clean ups I recognize it is hypocritical to like collecting beach glass. I get that, but glass is not allowed on the beaches for a reason. If you break it on the beach, it could be very bad for the next person or your own group.
Last week when we cleaned beach plum Island State Park. I did the usual, which is drive the clean up area to collect any large debris that won’t fit into a bucket. At one point I just made a random turn to go back to the crew. Little did I know it could have been a bad day if I had made my turn eight inches farther over.
When we walked the entire beach I saw my tire track and just eight inches from it was a huge piece of clear, sharp glass. Due to the angle of the sun I could barely see it. Had I run over this we would have been changing a tire. Most likely this came from the ocean and washed up on the beach, but it is a good example why glass is bad on a beach. The fact you could barely see it just shows someone could easily step on it.
If you break a bottle on a beach, there will be shards that can really make for a bad day in someone’s foot. A vehicle could run it over and get a flat tire, which this time of year is more of a hassle. Until the fishing kicks in you might not see a truck all day on a beach, if you need help, you will have to make some phone calls.
I see glass all of the time, when you mention to people, hey that isn’t allowed, you could drop one and break it. The typical reply is nothing is going to happen, I am fine, I know what I am doing. Murphy’s Law. Accidents happen, we are not in control of them. So do yourself and everyone a favor and stop taking glass to the beach.
Fish On!
Rich King