An online post about taking home sands from Philippine beaches opened conversations about preservation of sands in tourist destinations.
A Reddit user on Saturday shared a screengrab of a post of a content creator flaunting the bottles of different sands she has taken home from her travels.
“How to display… that’s my problem… and soon, I will have time to arrange…”
She also included the following hashtags in her post: “#whitesandbeaches,” “#whitesand,” “#beaches,” #BeachesResorts,” “#BeachEscapade,” “#travelling [sic]” and “#travelpamore.”
The content creator also claimed to have collected what she considered the “top [seven] finest white sand beaches in the Philippines.”
In her collection, she showed bottles of sand from Panglao, Samal Island in Davao, Boracay, San Juan in Siquijor, Buslon Island in Surigao, Miniloc Beach in El Nido, Palawan, and one of the beaches in the Calaguas Islands.
Her collection did not end there. She also showed viewers her other bottles, each filled with sand from the beaches she visited, including those in other countries.
The post caught the attention of a Redditor who hoped that people would stop taking home sands from beaches.
“Sana naman iwasan natin ‘yung magdala ng buhangin from the beach,” the Reddit user said on June 29.
“Ang dami ko nakikita now na vlogger (or wannabe) na nag-pro-promote or nag-b-brag ng mga travels nila at ang souvenir nila is magdala ng buhangin from the beach. ‘Pag cino-call out mo, laging dahilan ay ‘konti lang naman,'” the user added.
“Hindi ko malilimutan ‘yung first lesson nung tourism [professor] namin at unang pinakabisado sa’min. ‘Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures, kill nothing but time,'” the user said.
Sana naman iwasan natin yung magdala ng buhangin from the beach
byu/lookomma inPhilippines
The Redditor’s screengrab of the content creator’s Facebook post also drew flak from some Reddit users.
“‘Konti lang’ but if everyone does it, boom, ubos ang buhangin. [Diyos ko],” a Redditor commented.
“Remember ko when I visited Sagada, may isang couple na umuwi ng [two] full 1.5 litre bottles of soil from the Blue Soil Hills. Kahit sinabihan na ng kapwa tourists, tour guides and locals, tinawanan lang nila. Like, the hell, mga b*bo, walang respeto,” another Reddit user said.
“Lowkey quarrying na ba ‘yan?” a different Redditor asked.
Quarrying is the process of removing rock, sand, gravel, or other minerals from the ground to use them to produce materials for construction or other uses.
“Eventually, itatapon din nila ‘yan after 10 [ten] years. Might as well just don’t f**kin bring it home. Haaaayy, lakas ng loob mag-post,” a Reddit user commented.
Another Pinoy mentioned Boracay’s policy on extraction of sands.
“Wait, pano nakakuha ‘yan ng sand sa Boracay? Bawal ‘yun ah,” the Redditor said.
The Malay municipality in the province of Aklan, where the world-famous Boracay is located, has Municipal Ordinance No. 310 (series of 2012) which prohibits the “blatant extraction of the white sands in the Island of Boracay.”
First-time violators will be penalized with P2,500 fine or face imprisonment for one to three months.
Apart from the penalties, the violator shall return the white sands from the area where it was extracted.
“Mere possession of white sands and pebbles within the Municipality of Malay shall be presumed extracted from Boracay Island and shall be considered prima facie evidence of extraction,” the ordinance said.
It also said that sand extraction “greatly” diminishes the beauty of Boracay’s world-renowned white sands.
The ordinance further said the act “causes the slow degradation, if not the destruction, of the pristine island.”
Reader’s Digest said that sand, despite being seemingly an abundant resource, can also run out.
The magazine said that it is among the world’s most used natural resource, following air and water.
It added that the world uses approximately 50 billion tons of sand annually.
“According to a report from Business Insider in 2018, 67 percent of the beaches in Southern California will have disappeared by the year 2100,” the magazine said.
“Think of all the growing cities with new buildings made of concrete, the furniture where you sit and even the screen you are reading this on that are made from sand. It may seem impossible with all of our beaches, deserts, and oceans, but humans are consuming more sand than the planet can produce,” it added.
The magazine also said that people should “protect” them if they still want to be able to enjoy beautiful beaches.
