Does sinking beer bottles help or hurt?

Question

Years ago, when my friends and I would go sailing, we would drop empty beer bottles to the bottom of the Long Island Sound. We intended to create artifical reef-like habitats. We were not intending to pollute. We are both SCUBA divers and know about sea life.

So, did we help or hurt Mother Nature?

Answer 1

Chances are you pissed off scallop fisherman more than mother nature.  They scrape the the ocean floor with nets and probably picked up your bottles while wreaking havoc on the sea bed. What you did is nothing compared to the damage the mass fisheries do on a yearly basis.

Answer 2

I know that when we want to count sea life, we check the bottles, always something living inside, especially small octopus

glass is inert

on a small scale it is a benefit for wildlife habitat

Answer 3

I don`t think you hurt the environment because glass is a part of it .We just altered it in shape and structure.As long as nobody can step on it and get hurt.We went to the lake one time and my husband stepped on a broken beer bottle someone had thrown into the lake.

Answer 4

The majority of glass in the United States is recycled. By not recycling, you are forcing producers to make more glass bottles. This results in a very wasteful process. So, indirectly you create more pollution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_conta...

http://www.container-recycling.org/zbcwa...

According to this site, glass takes 500 years to decompose.

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/watercraft/cl...

Why NOT recycle and why litter?