Broward County in Florida is planning to restore its eroding shoreline with experimental beaches composed of sand from ground-up bottles.
The county will spend USD 570,000 in county and state funds t…
Broward County in Florida is planning to restore its eroding shoreline with experimental beaches composed of sand from ground-up bottles. The county will spend USD 570,000 in county and state funds to set up and study two plots of ground glass along the southern Broward shore. If the experiment is successful, the county might use the material to fill gaps in a stretch of sand from Port Everglades to Hallandale which suffers from erosion. The idea has not been welcomed by Florida state environmental regulators, who are concerned about the possible impact on shorebirds and sea turtle nests. The county is still discussing with the state how to carry out the experiment. The plots will not be open to the public. County officials will consider factors likely to affect sea turtle nests, such as temperature, gas exchange and moisture. They will also devise a way to survey beach-goers about whether they would feel comfortable with glass sand. “It provides a green solution to the disposal of what might otherwise be a waste product,” said Steve Higgins, Broward“s beach erosion administrator. “And it provides for the sustainability of our beaches, which is an important piece of our economic and environmental infrastructure. We think it“s possible, and we think the material that results will be practically indistinguishable from beach sand.” Higgins and other county officials acknowledge the difficulty of convincing the public to accept ground glass as a substitute for sand although they are confident that with enough public education and the right quality of ground glass, it could be done. The cost of sand is forcing Broward County and other to look at alternatives. The price of natural sand starts at about USD 10 for 1 cubic yard (0.7645 cubic meter), rising to USD 25 per cubic yard, and the county may require up to a million cubic yards. Even though the county is about to begin a major beach renourishment project in southern Broward, those beaches are expected to continue to erode. “It“s a serious problem,” Higgins said. “We“re going to have to maintain that beach. We can“t let it go critical like it has in the past. To do that, we“re going to have to place sand at various places along the beach on a fairly frequent basis.” The glass sand would be ground to the same grain size of natural sand. County officials say they could blend the different colored bottles into something close to the color of South Florida sand. Stephen Leatherman, the scientist known as “Dr. Beach” for his annual ratings of the top beaches in the United States, supports Broward“s plan to experiment with ground glass. “I think it“s worth a shot,” said Leatherman, director of Florida International University“s Laboratory for Coastal Research. “Sand is like gold now. It would be nice to have another alternative to going to the Bahamas and paying the ransom.”