Sand and gravel are mostly used materials in the world and their usage has even exceeded biomass and fossil fuels in terms of weight. Sand is a key component in almost everything that surrounds us. From microchips and laundry detergents to makeup and glassware, it is even in our drink and food.
Our world is soon facing scarcity of sand and we are responsible for it. Recent floods in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Houston has added the global demand for sand.
Globally we use about 40 billion tons of sand every year. In fact after fresh water, sand is the second most consumed natural resource in the world and consists of up to 85% of everything we pull out of the earth.
Where is all this sand going?
Construction industry is sucking up most of the world's sand. We are building more than even before. In 1951, the urban population of the whole world was almost 746 million. Today that number has jumped to over 3.9 billion, and it shows it is not going to slow down. Meeting the demand of this expansion, sand is the construction industry’s most favorite material.
Thanks to its versatility and compressive strength, concrete has become the most widely used construction material in the world. In 2012 alone, our world used concrete that was enough to build a wall 89ft high and 89ft wide around the equator. Long lasting and durable, the formula for making concrete is the same since the Roman Empire, and at the base of this formula is sand.
A typical American house might require 100 – 200 tons of sand. A single mile of highway might use 38,000 tons. As buildings get larger, that number also increases.
The world tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai required a shocking 121, 254 tons of concrete and that is incredible. You might think that this sand would had brought from its own deserts, but you are wrong. Although the Arabian Desert is extended over 900,000 square miles of sand dunes and it might seems like the endless resource, industry calls this sand as “bad sand”. This sand is tossed and shaped into tiny round balls by the wind, the desert sand lacks the enough binding properties that make it effective for construction. In fact the entire Gulf coast depend on the sand which is shipped from countries like Australia.
Due to increasing demand together with sand mining, sand is becoming scarce in many countries. For example, in Vietnam, the domestic demand of sand has exceeded its total reserves. According to forecast of Ministry of Construction, if it continues, Vietnam may run short of sand by 2020.
Sand that is useful for construction, comes from rivers and beaches and as the need for this good sand increases, sand miners are going to extreme lengths to source it. In United States, sand mining is blamed for erosion of beaches, air and water pollution extending from Wisconsin’s Lakes to California coast.
Since 2005, estimated two dozen islands of the coast of Indonesia, have been disappeared from earth due to sand mining. India’s $120 million growing construction industry is now being fueled by sand mafia which is an organization that literally steals sand from beaches at night and they have even scared, bribed and even killed people for sand.
Today sand mining has become an estimated $70 billion industry and USA is its top exporter. All this is causing disaster to our environment. It is causing floods, polluting rivers, loss of biodiversity and destroying our beaches.
In at least dozens of countries, like Jamaica, Nigeria, Morocco and Israel, criminal gangs are dredging tons of sand every year and selling it on the black market. As a result, whole stretch of their beaches is disappearing.
So what should we do to save sand?
There are substitute for sand available for some uses. Mud can be used for land reclamation while stone powders and other industrial waste products can be used in certain concretes.
Recycling is also an option. Plastics can be composited into road surface in place of asphalt. Florida is planning to use crushing glass to replace its diminishing beaches. But the chances are limited and the pressure is increasing to find a renewable alternates.
As time is running out quickly, will we be able to find solution or just bury our heads in the sand??
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