Are We Running Out Of Sand?
 

What a mind-blowing article in Hightower's Lowdown! Our Ravenous Appetite Turns Humble Sand Into An Endangered National Treasure

Who'd have thought, in Saudi Arabia, with all that sand, and so much of it is unusable in making concrete, and to build all those new buildings in Dubai they had to import sand from Virginia. The sand in the desert is too fine for making concrete.

Sand is also used for fracking, consuming tons of it!

There's a CEMEX plant around Monterey Bay that is due to shut down in 2020, actually a sand plant, they've been extracating sand there for decades. Time to shut it down!

Being a concrete lover, it never occurred to me that not just any kind of sand will do to create it.

And then there's glass

We've had threads here before on issues associated with sand shortages.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=204547

Anyway, I love posting this comic when the topic comes up.

https://satwcomic.com/art/great-deal.png
https://satwcomic.com/great-deal

I don't get it

Are we running out of rocks? ;)

Interesting article I read a couple days ago in the times:

Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...htmlstory.html

It's a shame that the sediment from the constantly filling flood control debris basins and reservoirs isn't used.

http://dpw.lacounty.gov/lacfcd/sedim...bris_basin.jpg
http://dpw.lacounty.gov/lacfcd/sedim...risbasins.aspx

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4535/3...eda61203_b.jpg
https://www.wsj.com/articles/latest-...and-1490266800

Just one more reason to support renewable wood construction for low and highrises!

???

Aren't we trying to use less wood? Has up become down, and we need to stop using sand and rocks, and use more trees?

I still get the shivers, seeing all these mid-rise apartment buildings being built out of wood, and I know, yes, they have lots of water sprinklers in those buildings, but the biggest shiver is their building them in earthquake zones, where the water could get cut off during a quake, and then??

I have no idea where the rest of the world is getting their sand for concrete, but I know in Mexico it's even hard to find a one story wooden house, concrete all the way!

When they implode an older concrete building, do they or can they recycle the concrete?

Very amazing article.Thank you for taking the time to write about this much needed subject.

Wow!! I never would have thought that the one thing we have plenty of, we really don't have. It's kinda like water!! 3/4 of our planet is covered in water, but we really don't have that much to use. :shrug: