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LOCAL Wednesday 10 January 2024

Another Treasure of Aruba’s Beaches: Sea Glass!

NOORD - It is hard to imag- beer), green (Heineken
ine this happening today, & Balashi beer) and clear Funny, how trash can
but years ago people glass which are the soft change into treasures!
dumped all kinds of refuse much loved “soft drink”
straight into the ocean, bottles. Everybody knows that you
including old cars, and are not allowed to take
their household garbage, If you like to see the sea local shells home, but the
which of course included glass for yourself, and be people working at the air-
lots of glass. Over the next in awe of the power of na- port have no problem you
30 years the pounding ture, rent a car or jeep and taking sea glass home. A
waves cleaned the beach, go explore our deserted few of those pieces make
by breaking down every- beaches on the north side great souvenirs. You can
thing but glass and pot- of the island. Make it a fun place them in a wine glass
tery. The pounding waves family day! or large bottle for decora-
washed the trash up and Even if we didn’t mean to tion and every time you
down, back and forth. Tons pollute the Beaches how look at it a smile will light up
of polished, broken glass we did, it is inspiring to see your face thinking back of
pieces were created by just how the earth can cor- your unforgettable Aruba
the pounding surf. These rect our mistakes. vacation! q
smoothened, colored glass way to the ocean and tum- For years, the water beat
particles then settled along bles around in the water against the different kinds
the sea shore in millions, long enough is “Sea glass. of trash being dumped.
and that is why you can Glass, household appli-
find these beautiful and The colorful pieces of glass ances and even motor
colorful pieces on the north are being used for decora- parts were discarded on
shore beaches of Aruba. tion, handcrafts and jew- the beach. The waves and
elry! weather conditions wore
Especially on the strip on Once glass makes its way down the overwhelming
white sand between the fa- into the ocean, the glass is amount of garbage in the
mous Natural Bridge” and broken up into shards and is water, creating millions of
the huge red anchor close tumbled around in the wa- beautiful smooth rocks.
to “Grapefield” beach you ter, where sand and other
will be able to find your own rocks act like sandpaper to It’s hard to believe the
pieces of sea glass. The sea smooth out its rough edges. short-sighted mistakes we
glass that was created is Sometimes as the sea glass were making that could
the product of a very long is passed through fire, it be- have potentially ruined
and interesting process. It comes fire glass, the rarest these beautiful beaches.
can take anywhere from of sea glass with certain But thanks to natural pro-
10 to 30 years to make sea inclusions, just like precious cesses, the ocean trans-
glass. The name for any gems. formed the trash into the
piece of glass that finds its sea glass.
Each colored gem on the
beach has its own story.

The ruby red glass stones
are typically from old car
tail-lights.

Then, the sapphire rocks
are the remnants of bro-
ken apothecary bottles.
The most common and
the easiest to find are the
brown (Amstel & Polar