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LOCAL Wednesday 5 July 2023

Another Treasure of Aruba’s Beaches: Sea Glass!

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

The colorful pieces of glass
are being used for decora-
tion, handcrafts and jew-
elry!
Once glass makes its way
into the ocean, the glass is
broken up into shards and is