The Ocean Has Polished Our Broken Glass And Turned Into Treasure

Much of the glass humans have broken and thrown away throughout history has ended up in the ocean. Luckily, unlike plastic, glass is a natural material made out of sand, that eventually turns back into sand once it has eroded into tiny enough pieces. Before it breaks all the way back down into sand, it is tumbled by the ocean into these dazzling little stones called “sea glass.”



History in the Glass Pieces: Many people started collecting these pieces of sea glass. Aside from collecting them, they can tell exactly what or when the glass originated with a simple observation – the color of the glass. A big part of the sea glass that we find today is either white, clear, brown, or kelly green. These all come from modern glass bottles from beer, juice, or soft drinks, as well as plates, windshields, drinking glasses, and windows. Less common sea glass colors that you'll find are forest green, amber, jade, and ice blue. These glass shards come from medicine bottles, whiskey bottles, and ink bottles from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Lime green color sea glass comes from soda bottles in the 1960s.