Panaji, Feb 11: Last year, numerous beachgoers went back home carrying memories of injuries from broken glass bits littered on Goa’s sunny beaches. In January alone this year, two cases were reported wherein people had to be administered first aid by lifesavers after suffering cuts from broken glass strewn along the popular North Goa shoreline.
The injuries, recorded across multiple beaches, underline a recurring safety concern linked to discarded glass bottles according to Drishti Marine, the state – appointed lifesaving agency.
“The issue of glass litter is a challenge for tourists and citizens alike. For a tourist destination and any healthy functioning society, it is imperative to address this issue,” says Carlos Souza, convenor of the Confederation of Indian Industries’ Goa panel on Tourism.
Data sourced from Drishti Marine, the Goa government-appointed beach safety agency, shows that injuries linked to broken glass were reported in 2025 from Anjuna, Arambol, Baga, Benaulim, Calangute, Colva and Palolem. In 2024, similar cases were recorded across Betalbatim, Morjim, Velsao, Baina and Palolem.
For those whose livelihoods depend on the beach, the pattern is familiar. “Tourists take bottles on the beach, they drink, they bury them, sometimes they litter, sometimes they break them,” says Cruz Cardoz, president of the Shack Owners Association. “Later, people step on it. A lot of people cut their feet.”
Cardoz suggests that a deposit scheme for bottles sold near beaches may well be the answer. “Right now, nobody keeps a deposit,” he says. “If you sell a bottle and tell the person to keep a deposit and take it back once the bottle is returned, people will bring it back.”
That logic mirrors the thinking behind the state government’s Deposit Refund Scheme (DRS), currently being rolled out by the Department of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Goa. Under the scheme, consumers pay a refundable deposit at the point of purchase, which is returned when the empty container, including glass bottles, is brought back to an authorised collection point.
Dr Anthony de Sa, who heads the DRS Scheme Administrator Committee, stated that the DRS scheme was shaped to include waste that does not get collected when discarded, because of its low re-sale value – such as multi-layered plastic (MLP) . “While a significant amount of waste is being managed, especially materials with clear monetary value, such as PET bottles and beer bottles, low-value waste, such as chips and chocolate wrappers and juice cartons, is largely left behind. These materials were difficult to collect, costly to transport and generated little revenue, yet they are disastrous for the environment,” he said.
Explaining the approach, de Sa said that it was important to have a comprehensive approach, in which high value as well as low value waste were both collected, and internal cross-subsidies leveraged. “The objective is to incentivise return at source, not to deal with the material after it enters drains, beaches or public areas,” he said, adding that the DRS, while incentivising waste collectors, was also aiming to drive at a social behavioural change towards waste disposal by consumers, and packaging by manufacturers.
Carlos Souza believes measures like the DRS are necessary if Goa wants to protect both residents and visitors from the menace of glass litter. “Glass litter is a threat to safety. It affects how tourists experience Goa and how residents use public spaces,” he says.
According to Anthony Fernandes, who runs the Roma Cafe beach shack shared how glass litter finds its way into the sand especially at night, when groups of domestic tourists drink on the beach and leave the garbage behind. “Even in the water there are glass bottles and people get cuts,” Fernandes says.