Submitted by Meghan Bennett on the 2019 winter session program in Bermuda sponsored by the School of Marine Science & Policy…
One of my favorite places I visited during my time in Bermuda was Glass Beach. I had heard of Glass Beach on some travel websites and decided to check it out during my last weekend there. The story behind Glass Beach is that back when the Royal Navy controlled the Dockyards in Bermuda they would use the site as a dumping ground for glass. Today, the beach is absolutely covered in sea glass. There was so much sea glass that there wasn’t even enough open sand to put a beach towel down. The beach is mostly covered in green and brown sea glass, but if you looked hard enough you could find some blue, yellow, and even purple pieces. I have always loved collecting sea glass and shells and could have spent all day sifting through the glass looking for the best pieces.
While this was easily the most unique beach I had ever been to, I noticed it had something in common with every other beach we had been to in Bermuda: trash. With every handful of sea glass I picked up, there was at least a few small pieces of plastic mixed in. The trash on these beaches was not like the trash we find on the beaches on the East Coast. In the United States, it’s mostly large pieces of trash such as entire water bottles, or plastic bags that had just been dumped. In Bermuda, the beaches are littered with small bits of plastic. The plastic in Bermuda is not all coming from its residents. It’s plastic from all over the world that gets trapped in the Sargasso Sea and ends up on these beautiful beaches.
Seeing all of these beaches littered with the world’s trash has made me a lot more aware of my contributions to the growing plastic problem. It made me realize that the plastic we use here can end up anywhere. Since I have been home, I have taken steps to reduce my use of single use plastics and have encouraged my family and friends to do the same.