[maury91]

In Sardinia (Italy) we have a similar problem, many tourists steals beach sand as a souvenir. The number of tourists that does this is so big that some beaches got smaller, and goverment has choose to put a stop by giving huge fines and possibly jail time.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sardinian+sand+theft

[londons_explore]

I'd be interested to see the distribution of amounts of sand stolen per person.

If 10% of people steal a shot-glass of sand as a momento from a beach 100 meters X 100 meters which has 1000 daily visitors, the sand goes down 1cm every hundred years, which is waay slower than sealevel rise.

If people start taking sackfulls home, the balance changes quickly though.

[maury91]

usually, there are pictures in the articles with images of the stolen sand.

The majority of time is not a shot-glass, but more like a bottle.

Here some pictures:

https://www.ilmessaggero.it/photogallery_img/MED/31/07/44531... https://www.repstatic.it/content/nazionale/img/2019/04/26/11... https://filecdn.nonsprecare.it/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/FU... https://www.gelestatic.it/thimg/xdU2x4YwGfNp33fZp0ePMCBh38M=... https://trekking.it/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/copertina1-10...

A shot-glass is around the tolerable level because it's the amount of sand you find in your shorts when you are back home from the beach.

[homonculus1]

Whatever department manages the beaches should insert themselves into this practice to moderate it. Sell pretty glass display bottles that are more attractive than a bag or soda bottle, but happen to be tiny. This wouldn't work if it inspired enough people to start collecting to outweigh the savings from intervention.

[maury91]

99% of the beaches are unmoderated (is an island so we have a lot of them). Tourists are usually caught at the airport or boarding the ferry (only 2 ways for leaving the island). Sometimes they are also spotted while they steal sand on the beach by the locals, that stops them and call the police.

[londons_explore]

The government should sell little glass test tubes for $5 each (ie. A very inflated price compared to the 10 cents such glassware costs). Put a government logo on them and a serial number.

Then put up signs at beaches saying "Taking sand is illegal unless you do it in a government vial". Allow tourist sellers to resell the vials on the beaches.

Then at airports and ports, allow those vials to go out filled with sand. Ban the import of vials (probably no need to enforce, because filling tiny containers is unlikely worth it on a criminal scale).

It's a very low effort way to tax a product without requiring tax returns and paperwork.

[jacobwilliamroy]

Stamp their passports! No more Sardinia for them! Ever!

[qwerty456127]

A classic example of how boring governments are. All they can do is ban, fine and imprison. If I were the governor I'd just import the sand from Sahara and include the expenses (as well as some reasonable profit) in the beach entrance fee. They are going to have to import it anyway, why not just accept the reality and turn the problem into business?

[maury91]

I hope you are joking. The sand that is stolen is not just any sand, people steals that sand because it's different, for example, some sand is pink, some is made by small quartz stones, some is red, some is black. Replacing it with generic Sahara sand will result in a "new" beach, and is not what we want. We want to stop people from taking the sand, not make a business out of it.

[qwerty456127]

A spoiler: The people won't stop. No matter how hard you ban.

[harimau777]

I don't think they need to stop it completely. They just need to reduce it enough that it doesn't outpace the beach's ability to replenish the sand.

[platz]

Tragedy of the commons fatalism, eh?

I guess there's nothing we can do - burn everything.

[lm28469]

> If I were the governor I'd just import the sand from Sahara and include the expenses

It's much easier to prevent it than to fix it by transporting tonnes of sands from africa to wherever the sand is needed. Being able to pay for something doesn't magically make it a good idea. Plus I'm not sure westerners coming to Africa to take sand for their beaches will be well received.

[yardie]

Sahara sand is different from beach sand. It's very fine and when it gets wet it feels more like paste then sand. It's why the UAE has to import sand for construction projects even though the cities are literally built on top of it.

[kenneth]

The UAE is also nowhere near the Sahara desert, for what it's worth.