What is Seaglass?

Natural sea glass is created over time from old bottles and jars that have been discarded in the world’s oceans. These pieces are then tossed, broken and tumbled down for decades by the sea and sand into unaltered smooth pieces of frosted glass. Though most sea glass comes from bottles, it can also come from plates, windows, or glass containers, even car wind shields!

The most common colors for sea glass is clear, brown and bright green. These colors come from bottles used by companies like Presidente, Heineken, Clorox and others. Less common colors include amber (from medicine, spirits, and whiskey bottles), lime green (from 1960’s soda bottles), and soft blue (from medicine bottles, ink bottles and fruit jars).

If you are lucky enough to find a sea foam piece of sea glass (uncommon color) it comes primarily from early to mid-1900s Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper, and RC Cola bottles, as well as beer bottles. Soft green colors could come from bottles that were used for ink, fruit, and baking soda.

How exciting to think that a piece of sea glass you find might have been a medicine bottle from an 18th Century Spanish Galleon or the Capitan’s rum flask off a real pirate’s ship.

Did you know that sea glass is one of the very few cases of a valuable item being created from the actions of the environment on man-made litter? We find pounds of it on the islands beach’s each week. What a great way to recycle!