Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
h a l f b a k e r y
This is what happens when one confuses "random" with "profound."

idea: add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random

meta: news, help, about, links, report a problem

account: browse anonymously, or get an account and write.

user:
pass:
register,


                                                               

Please log in.
Before you can vote, you need to register. Please log in or create an account.

Bottle Beach

Grind old green bottles and pour sea water on them.
  (+16)(+16)
(+16)
  [vote for,
against]

Grind a load of green bottles down so that you get rounded sand-like grains. Choose a shore location that doesn't have much of a drift current and create a sandy beach made of green sand.

If anybody asks 'why?', I'm afraid I don't have a good answer for you.

st3f, Sep 13 2007

Bottle Beach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_Beach
Not the location I had in mind. [st3f, Sep 13 2007]

(?) the moon is made of green sand http://moonsandkits...qwI4CFR8sFQodJgM5wg
[xandram, Sep 13 2007]

a real bottle beach project http://www.planetsa...coastline-near-you/
[dentworth, Sep 14 2007]

Glass Beach in Fort Bragg http://www.fortbrag...agg-attractions.php
[xipetotec, Sep 14 2007]

Green Botty Bottle Beach http://profile.imag...ybottlebeachry6.jpg
[skinflaps]' vision...
In my defence, I was bored.
Really bored. [theleopard, Sep 14 2007]

[link]






       Where're you going to find old green bottles? (I've been to Bottle Beach btw)
skinflaps, Sep 13 2007
  

       This would have to be super-ground to avoid a glassy rash, but I love it all the same. What would be the environmental damage to the local eco-system anyway? I foresee a resounding 'nothing'. [+]
theleopard, Sep 13 2007
  

       I can foresee lots of green bums and elbows.
skinflaps, Sep 13 2007
  

       I don't think there is a problem of having too many bottles. If you can collect and sort them, lots of companies will quite happily buy them from you.
marklar, Sep 13 2007
  

       //Where're you going to find old green bottles?//   

       More pressingly, who's going to read all the messages? [+]
zen_tom, Sep 13 2007
  

       <Barry White> Oh baby, super-ground. </BW>
theleopard, Sep 13 2007
  

       Why just green? In my youth, I was given blue bottles (Milk of Magnesia, if memory serves) to plink at with an air rifle, having set them adrift some distance from the shore. Decades later, one can still find nicely polished shards amongst the pebbley beach.
csea, Sep 13 2007
  

       + Yes, I collect sea glass and there are many beautiful, faded colors, but green sand sounds cool.
xandram, Sep 13 2007
  

       //blue bottles// Is there anything better than the ictal pleasure of staring at deep blue glass?
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 13 2007
  

       Yep.
Red. (+)
  

       No no no NO! Red can be pretty, but it's not the same as blue. Deep cobalt blue, with light just dipping its toe into it before becoming confused. It simply has to be blue. There's actually a region of the visual cortex which responds only to blue, and is linked directly to the hypothalamus and the amygdala. Or at least there might be.
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 13 2007
  

       I was looking for the story about the sand that turned green from a nuclear blast. If I can find a link I'll post it.   

       it's called Trinitite, for the Trinity site of the first Nuclear blast test in New Mexico.
dentworth, Sep 14 2007
  

       Would the benefit of using bottles be the color? And would it be on top of the existing beach? Just wondering.   

       Wouldn't it take a *lot* of ground-up glass? Like a truckload? Not that it couldn't be done.
bnip, Sep 14 2007
  

       Maybe you could do this with auto safety glass. I bet that does not get recycled.
bungston, Sep 14 2007
  

       //Wouldn't it take a *lot* of ground-up glass?//   

       There's plenty around - think of all the bottle banks (UKcentric?) that have to be emptied weekly. OK, it's not very environmentally friendly, as they're not going to be recycled, but I don't think this idea is about saving the planet anyway. [+]
jtp, Sep 14 2007
  

       Here in San Diego, since we have dammed up all the rivers, the sand does not flow downstream and replenish the coastline as it would in earlier days.   

       We have tried many things, including hauling sand from Arizona and dumping it on the beaches. We dredge the bays and waterways and dump it on the beaches, depositing military castaway material.   

       I would like to see this idea expanded to a string of beaches of different color glass.
normzone, Sep 14 2007
  

       I think I misunderstood the idea. I thought you were suggesting a way to make a kind of portable beach, so that a family could go to a beachless shore for the weekend and bring their bottle beach with them. But it's really more of a permanent or semi-permanent, large-scale thing, right? Rather than about portability.
bnip, Sep 14 2007
  

       I don't think they eat sand, AD as sand is mineral itself and I believe pretty much glass itself. you're probably thinking of silt or mud.   

       edit - well, they don't digest the sand...
po, Sep 14 2007
  

       Bnip, the idea would be to construct a permanent beach where there currently was none. The currents would have to be modeled carefully to stop the beach washing away and adding a bit of green to existing beaches.   

       Max, 2-fries, no reason why you couldn't have other colours. I'm picturing an artificial atoll with three curved sides, each of which has a beach of different coloured sand.   

       Anathema D., it would be initially pretty sterile and would take a few years for the wildlife to take hold. During this time I would expect the colour to fade a bit as silt and mud (not from the glass) takes hold in the sand.   

       Dentworth, thanks for the link. Looks like I've been beaten to it.
st3f, Sep 14 2007
  

       Those who doubt the availability of bottles have forgotten that many nice biers come in green bottles.   

       Simply increase the production of said beers and you have a matching increase in the number of green bottles.
vincevincevince, Sep 14 2007
  

       Rainbow beach, I likey, or maybe that Art Attack guy can try to finish off a single picture before the tide comes in.   

       Someone may have said this, but I'd like a beach with bottle glass pebbles.
DrCurry, Sep 14 2007
  

       See [xipetotec]'s Fort Bragg link [DrCurry].
theleopard, Sep 14 2007
  

       Ha! green bums and elbows.
skinflaps, Sep 14 2007
  

       You totally called it.
theleopard, Sep 14 2007
  

       blue glass would be great too - most worthy notion. +
xenzag, Sep 14 2007
  
      
[annotate]
  


 

back: main index

business  computer  culture  fashion  food  halfbakery  home  other  product  public  science  sport  vehicle