Unintended Recyclable Consequences

Broward County in Florida is studying the idea of using recycled glass to mix in with sand to stop erosion. Trucking in sand is an expensive endeavor, and so far, the county officials have spent about 600,000 dollars studying whether the crushed glass idea is even feasible, and cheaper, than continuing with just plain old sand. One thing they know for sure, is that the glass bits do not erode at the same pace as the plain natural silica, which breaks down at a much faster rate. However, they don't know about the ocean's erosion patterns, whether dumping the crushed glass in one spot will actually stay there for a while. It would be a pretty expensive mistake to have the glass taken away by the ocean faster than regular sand. I am glad that the story mentions Florida's best cautionary tale for reuse: building artificial reefs of old tires, only to have the ocean currents blast them apart, and cost the state even more in cleaning up the environmental hazard.