As early as 1906, Fort Bragg, California used nearby beaches
as official dump sites. As shocking as that is by today’s standards, it was quite
common back then. If your town had an ocean view, that’s where you’d haul your
trash. From time to time the city set the refuse on fire to reduce the volume.
In 1967 the state Water Resources Control Board closed the area to dumping. Eventually
the organic waste degraded. The discarded metal was dragged away and sold as
scrap. The relentless Pacific Ocean ground away at the broken glass. Now it looks
like the beaches are covered in jewels. What used to be shards of old bottles became
a billion smooth pebbles in every color of the rainbow. The glass beaches
attract a thousand tourists a day during the summer, at least for now. There
are signs prohibiting the collection of sea glass, but people do. Even if they
didn’t, the ocean is still grinding away.
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