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Earth Is Running Out of Sand, Spurring a Cutthroat Black Market (www.popularmechanics.com)
submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Understanding the Sand Shortage: Why We're Running Out of Sand

The world uses 50 billion metric tons of sand annually.

Sand is a key ingredient in all concrete and glass production.

There are already ongoing reports of a mafia-style black market for sand.

The world is in crisis yet again. This time around, it’s a sand shortage.

The most-extracted solid material in the world, and second-most used global resource behind water, sand is an unregulated material used extensively in nearly every construction project on Earth. And with 50 billion metric tons consumed annually—enough to build an 88-foot-tall, 88-foot-wide wall around the world—our sand depletion is on the rise, and a completely unregulated rise at that.

Naturally occurring over thousands of years—if not hundreds of thousands of years, most sand originates in the mountains and forms as rivers bring it downstream toward oceans. Sure, head to beaches across the world to feel the sand between your toes, but sand does more than delight beachgoers and build cities. Sand also performs key environmental roles; it is a major factor in protecting from storm surges, ensuring healthy natural habitats for a variety of species, and protecting against erosion.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Why the world is running out of sand

Our planet is covered in it. Huge deserts from the Sahara to Arizona have billowing dunes of the stuff. Beaches on coastlines around the world are lined with sand. We can even buy bags of it at our local hardware shop for a fistful of small change.  

But believe it or not, the world is facing a shortage of sand. How can we possibly be running low on a substance found in virtually every country on earth and that seems essentially limitless?

The problem lies in the type of sand we are using. Desert sand is largely useless to us. The overwhelming bulk of the sand we harvest goes to make concrete, and for that purpose, desert sand grains are the wrong shape. Eroded by wind rather than water, they are too smooth and rounded to lock together to form stable concrete. 

The sand we need is the more angular stuff found in the beds, banks, and floodplains of rivers, as well as in lakes and on the seashore. The demand for that material is so intense that around the world, riverbeds and beaches are being stripped bare, and farmlands and forests torn up to get at the precious grains. And in a growing number of countries, criminal gangs have moved in to the trade, spawning an often lethal black market in sand.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191108-why-the-world-is-running-out-of-sand

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yes? Nothing you've posted actually relates to my point, which is that we can produce the sand we need by crushing rock. The only reason we don't do so at the moment is because it's cheaper to use the natural stuff.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Nobody is saying that without a time limit and at great expence sand can not be manufactured, but it is not even that simple.

Firstly : You would have to quarry your rock of preference before crushing, sieving, grading, and more than likely, also having to transport your specific rock grains to be mixed with other types of crushed and graded chips, depending on your sands ultimate purpose.

Secondly : It is not cheap to extract stone from the earth plus quarrying leaves very big holes in the ground! Permission from authorities to open new quarries or pits is not easily obtained in most countries.

Thirdly: Crushing is hazardous, polluting, environmentally destructive and very expensive .

The sand problem has been bubbling away on the back burner for years, hence the many and various ongoing efforts from all around the globe to recycle or create new and innovative construction materials.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I don't get what you're trying to say. My assertion was that this is nothing more than an economics issue - as easily obtainable sand is depleted, manmade sources will come online to fill the gap, and the only thing preventing this at the moment is pricing. You've listed a bunch of logistic issues, which again is nothing that money will not solve.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And again, what you consider to be merely an economic issue is exactly where you seem to be missing the point.

Quarrying is environmentally destructive. It has contamination and pollution issues. It carries health issues. As well as the costly logistics of transporting bulk around the planet. Governments these days no longer wish any company, large or small, to go around tearing rock, in any form - pre ground or otherwise -out of the ground. So your next problem would be sourcing the base materials for your manufactured product legally.

Economically, even if you did manage to quarry,crush,sieve,grade and mix your sand for lets say £1000 a ton. What architect on the planet would specify the use of such an environmentally unfriendly and costly material and what construction company in the world would pay such a price?

Architects are already specifying more sustainable materials and construction techniques are changeing, but at present, people are still destroying the planet and killing each other for sand ! That's the current economic situation.