Environmental Loses Due to Unethical Sand Mining!

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Sand is one of the most essential commodities in our modern society, even if you don't realize it. Sand and gravel are the second most utilized natural resources after water, according to the United Nations Environment Program. Sand is used in almost every part of our life, from infrastructure and roadways to our own electronic devices, as a fundamental component of cement, asphalt, and glass.

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What Is the Impact of Unsustainable Sand Mining on the Environment?

Sand is one of the most essential commodities in our modern society, even if you don't realize it. Sand and gravel are the second most utilized natural resources after water, according to the United Nations Environment Program. Sand is used in almost every part of our life, from infrastructure and roadways to our own electronic devices, as a fundamental component of cement, asphalt, and glass.

However, mining practices and restrictions differ between countries, making it difficult to keep track of global sand resources. Sand is already one of the least controlled natural resources in several regions of the world. We will continue to ruin ecosystems, cause pollution, and possibly evict thousands of people if it is not harvested and used sustainably.

Demand for Sand Is Growing

Despite the fact that sand can be found almost anywhere on the earth, not all of it is used in the same way. The angularity of sand grains taken from sea-beds and coastlines aids in the formation of concrete.

On the other hand, Desert sand grains are too round and smooth to be used in construction, according to Mette Bendixen, Ph.D., assistant professor of geography at McGill University in Canada. Meanwhile, silica sand, a silicon dioxide-rich sand, is utilized in golf course bunkers, computer chips, glass, electronic device screens, and even solar panels.

The requirement for sand has gone three times higher in the last 20 years as a result of a growing population in a fast-urbanizing world. Consider all of the infrastructure we've developed and the Sand and gravel usage in the world now surpasses 40 billion metric tons per year, well exceeding natural regeneration rates. By the end of 2050, 2.5 billion more people are forecasted to move in cities and other metropolitan areas, perhaps boosting global sand demand even further.

vast technical advancements we've seen in that period. "Our modern environs are essentially made of sand," Bendixen explains.

Sand and gravel usage in the world now surpasses 40 billion metric tons per year, well exceeding natural regeneration rates. By the end of 2050, 2.5 billion more people are forecasted to move in cities and other metropolitan areas, perhaps boosting global sand demand even further. With the way we consume sand, a global scarcity isn't out of the realm of possibility. According to Bendixen, the more people there are, the more sand we require for our buildings and infrastructure products, the primary cause of worldwide sand scarcity.

While sand may be limited, some experts believe the world will never run out of it - it will only become much more expensive.

"While it is true that the modern world requires 20 to 40 times more sand and gravel-sized aggregate material for construction each year than all of the world's rivers naturally carry to the ocean each year," says Zachary T. Sickmann, Ph.D., Richard T. Buffler Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. "For the rest of human civilization, there are enough of sand deposits to build on." The issue then becomes, "at what price?"

Sand Mining's Environmental Costs

Steel is made from ore, lumber is milled from trees, and oil is pumped from subterranean wells, but nature handles most of the work and refinement for sand. "Sand is ready to use in its natural

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Sand must be mined and used sustainably as a natural resource. However, lowcost sand solutions with low environmental and social consequences are hard to come by. Given our reliance on it, putting a complete halt to mining is unfeasible — and it isn't the solution either.

state with a little washing and size sorting," Sickmann explains. "Extraction has a meager monetary cost. The true cost of sand is in the negative environmental and social externalities that are rarely factored into the pricing."

Sand is formed when erosion breaks down surface rocks, and rain washes the sediment away into rivers and streams, carrying it to the coast. Consider the sediment dispersal mechanism as a conveyor belt, as Sickmann says.

Some of the sediment will spill out of the conveyor belt along the way, while others will continue to be transported to the coast, such as river sandbars or beaches.

The benefits of mining the sand that is still on the conveyor belt are undeniable. "The sand is directly on the surface, frequently un-vegetated, pre-washed, and [it] usually has a nice grain size distribution for usage in concrete," Sickmann explains. "It can replenish every year and appear endless from the perspective of a single mining location." However, this may eventually cause the entire dispersal system to be disrupted. When sand is mined at point A, less sand is moved downstream to points B and C, and if other places are mined, there will soon be no sand to feed points X, Y, and Z. This is where the issue arises.

"It's a straightforward mass balance equation," Sickmann explains. "River water has enough energy to convey a certain mass of sand." If that amount of sand isn't replenished naturally from upstream sources, the river will erode what's surrounding it to compensate until there's nothing left to erode."

Where existing infrastructure or natural habitats are affected, mining extractions may result in channel deterioration and land erosion, even if they are far from the mining locations themselves. According to Bendixen, sand mining in China's Pearl River lowers water levels. It increases riverbed scour, making it more challenging to extract drinking water and causing damage to infrastructure such as bridges and embankments along the river. As homes and rice farms crumble into the Mekong River in Vietnam, over half a million people must be moved.

Sand removal from riverbeds and beaches can also threaten biodiversity since it destroys nesting and breeding sites and reduces protection from extreme weather events like floods and storm surges. Sand extraction has a negative influence on the environment, affecting human health and ecosystems and causing significant social and economic loss.

Solution & Possibilities

Sand must be mined and used sustainably as a natural resource. However, low-cost sand solutions with low environmental and social consequences are hard

to come by. Given our reliance on it, putting a complete halt to mining is unfeasible — and it isn't the solution either. Sand resources must be continuously monitored and regulated to meet rising worldwide demand without damaging the environment.

"Finding more sustainable alternatives is an obvious solution to this problem," Sickmann argues.

"However, when it comes to sand, it's much easier said than done." While the energy sector has a long list of choices to transition us away from fossil fuels, such as solar, wind, and nuclear, there is no obvious way to move away from natural sand."

Bendixen and her colleagues propose using sand from Greenland's melting ice sheet to supply global demand, which is occurring due to climate change. As long as global warming continues, there will likely be a consistent supply of sand.

Other solutions that can be studied further include developing methods to make desert sand useable and substituting natural sand with crushed rock sand, rice husk ash, or recycled plastic. Because many components from demolished structures are recyclable, a circular economy strategy might be used to generate incentives for construction with demolition trash.

"The problem is that there are now no political or financial incentives to actually achieve this," Bendixen explains. "There are no easy fixes or short solutions to this situation, which is, in my opinion, one of the most difficult global concerns we are currently facing."

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