Playa del Carmen, Q.R. — More than 7,000 tons of sand has been returned to municipal beaches during the last three years. Efforts by the Federal Maritime Terrestrial Zone (Zofemat) enabled the sand to be recovered from sargassum removed from city beaches during cleans.
Adrián Medina, the Director of Solidaridad Zofemat (Zona Federal Marítimo Terrestre) said the 7,000 tons of sand was recovered from the 87,000 tons of sargassum removed from Playa del Carmen beaches.
Over the last three years, the recovered sand came from a drying and sifting process that allowed the city to replace the lost sand and aid in beach recovery. The project not only allowed the city to recover its own sand, but also create jobs.

Two of Playa del Carmen’s beaches, El Recodo and Punta Esmeralda, benefited the most from the returned sand, however, he says six city beaches received the recovered sand on an ongoing as-needed basis.

Medina says the sand recovery process contributed to improving the quality of the local coasts and attracting more tourists and is part of a long-term project that not only seeks to mitigate the effects of sargassum, but also to use it for the natural restoration of beaches.
After sifting, the unwanted sargassum is used by local companies for making products such as fertilizers and building blocks. The municipality is currently working with a German company to turn the sifted sargassum into biofuel as a pilot project.