The Insatiable Demand for Sand

• Author: Bruce Edwards

The Insatiable Demand for Sand Finance & Development, December 2015, Vol. 52, No. 4

Bruce Edwards

Deceptively abundant, the basic raw material for glass and concrete can’t keep up with demand

The commercial construction industry is booming. Office towers are popping up in Manhattan at their fastest pace in decades. “There are 23 buildings under construction with an average of 32 stories, and construction is projected to pick up dramatically. And on the multifamily side, we are seeing a record volume of new construction,” says Maddie Eldridge, market analyst for real estate research firm CoStar Group.

New York is not alone. Singapore has more than a dozen 40-plus-story buildings under construction. Dubai has started on a shopping mall covering 8 million square feet, after building the world’s tallest tower. At 2,716 feet, the Burj Khalifa is covered in 1.8 million square feet of glass and required 110,000 metric tons of concrete.

The United Nations says cities around the world are growing faster than ever, with 54 percent of the world’s population now living in urban areas, and 66 percent expected to do so by 2050. According to the UN World Urbanization Prospects report, urbanization combined with overall world population growth could add another 2.5 billion city dwellers by 2050. The report says that there were 10 megacities with 10 million people or more in 1990 and 28 today; it predicts 41 by 2030.

But as the world’s metropolises get bigger and reach higher into the sky to accommodate more people, the earth’s natural resources supply chain is being pushed to the limit. That strain is not from increasing demand for gold, diamonds, or copper, but for sand, the primary material for construction and hence for economic development.

Concrete and glass are made mostly of sand, a certain type of sand found deep below the earth’s surface, underwater, and on beaches. Sand mining to meet increasing demand over the years has become a thriving multibillion-dollar industry, but research by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) shows that rate to be unsustainable.

“Sand and gravel represent the highest volume of raw material used on earth after water. Their use greatly exceeds their natural renewal rates” (UNEP, 2014).

Dammed particlesEach grain of sand originates from rock on a mountaintop. The grains, formed by erosion over thousands of years, make a long journey through springs, streams, and rivers to the ocean, where the tides and waves...