Ever since childhood I have been an occasional collector of sea glass when going for beach walks. Some beaches are better than others. I rarely find a piece on the NE coast of Scotland. But further north, along the Moray Coast and on the south-west coast I have more luck.

This is a reasonable beach for finding sea glass

Sea glass is broken glass that has been tumbled about by the water, waves and sand. It becomes smooth and frosted in its appearance. Sharp edges are rare to find. The glass is often hidden amongst the flotsam and jetsam on the shoreline.

These are the treasures from my last beach walk

Most sea glass is clear or colourless. But there are a surprising number of pale shades of green, blue and turquoise. My favourite find is the bright cobalt blue glass. This colour is rare and often only small shards can be found. Put the glass in water to have a good close up look.

Children adore finding sea glass too. It’s easy to worry about them finding sharp, broken glass. But I think showing children the difference between the two and encouraging them to look for sea glass, helps children tune into what is lying around. ?Just take sensible precautions – searching for sea glass on a flat shore is safer than looking around rocks where there can often be hidden litter such as broken (new) bottles.

It’s certainly more fun than being told to look for litter to pick up. Children will also notice how much junk there is. The same message about littering is received with the added bonus of an interesting discussion about whether beautiful litter such as sea glass is acceptable.

But for sea glass to really shine, adding a few interesting rocks and stones seem to improve appearances

There are artists who specialist in sea glass art and sculptures such as Debara Hafemann. Sea glass jewellery is another specialism as can be seen through the work of Gina Cowen. For children the uses of sea glass are infinite, extending into all areas of play. I’d be interested to know what your children have done with sea glass.

I put the sea glass into the ice decorations for my tree outside

Is it okay to collect sea glass?

From an ecological perspective, sea glass is litter – it’s a not a natural part of a beach ecosystem. Removing it from a beach should not be an issue but check the local by-laws and national law in your country. These days a lot of debris can be found that also falls into a similar category: pottery shards, smooth rounded bricks and jetsam – stuff tipped overboard from ships.

What can we do to care for our beaches?

Surfers Against Sewage is a charity that is helpful when it comes to advice around beach clean ups. They may have a rep in your local area who have a box of resources which can be loaned to you for an event. Likewise your local council may also be able to supply some kit and you would need to arrange a pick up of the collected litter. Even a 2-minute mini beach clean up is a good habit to develop if you go to the beach – with or without a class.

This blog post was originally published in December 2010.