Ground glass a sharp idea for beaches

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Picture a beautiful beach spanning miles, gently lapped by aqua-colored water – and sprinkled with glass.

Ouch? Think again. It feels like sand, but with granules that sparkle in the sunlight.

Faced with the constant erosion of Florida’s beaches, Broward County officials are exploring using recycled glass – crushed into tiny grains and mixed with regular sand – to help fill gaps. It’s only natural, backers say, since sand is the main ingredient in glass.

“Basically, what we’re doing is taking the material and returning it back to its natural state,” said Phil Bresee, Broward’s recycling manager.

The county would become the first in the nation to combine disposal of recycled glass with bolstering beach sand reserves, Bresee said.

“You reduce waste stream that goes to our landfills, and you generate materials that could be available for our beaches,” said Paden Woodruff of the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Sand is a valuable commodity in South Florida, where beach-related business generates more than $1 billion a year for Broward alone.

The county would create only 15,600 tons of the glass material each year, not enough to solve its sand shortage, but enough to create a reserve for filling eroded spots before they can worsen, Bresee said.