I came across the issue of sand scarcity at an exhibition in the Gropius Bau in Berlin. Resource issues have always interested me, and I have long been aware of the obvious issues such as those with water, coal and precious metals. Fascinated by the dynamics of colonialism, climate change and capitalism, I have always felt very passionately about the troubling impact of reckless greed on resource consumption. The Berlin exhibition featured imagery of the sand industry and the various uses of sand. I remember being filled with a deep sense of confused frustration. It’s only sand! It covers 10% of the world’s surface, and can be found everywhere on beaches, in deserts. It is unbelievably plentiful, and surely if no one talks about it, what is the issue?

We are in a global sand crisis. Although overlooked, sand is the second-most used natural resource in the world, second only to water. The global sand market was valued at US$151 billion in 2022. As countries have urbanised and more buildings and infrastructure are being created, the demand for sand has increased hugely as a vital ingredient in concrete and glass. Other places such as Singapore and Hong Kong, who have been pursuing huge land reclamation projects, require sand to expand their coastlines – this has become especially en vogue with rising sea levels. It is safe to say that the use of sand will only increase as the world urbanises, develops and heats up. The global daily demand for sand is 18kg per person, amounting to 6,570kg per year per person. By 2060, the demand for sand will rise by 45% from 2022. 

So demand is high but why does the current supply fail to meet demand? The problem is that the sand required for construction purposes can only be abstracted from rivers and the sea, rendering a huge quantity of the world’s sand completely useless. In 2014, the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) introduced warnings about a new resource scarcity in a report titled ‘Sand, rarer than one thinks’. The report highlighted the disparity between sand abstraction and renewal. Sand creation happens over thousands, if not millions of years. It’s replenishing nowhere near as fast as we are currently using it. 

The situation has become so dire that criminal gangs have begun to mine sand illegally, exacerbated by the lack of regulation and governments who cannot provide economic security to citizens who search for employment in the black market. The illegal sand industry was worth somewhere between US$200 billion to US$350 billion in 2020. Countries are therefore forced to import sand from other states to meet their demands. China accounts for 20% of sand imports valued at a cool US$331 million followed by Canada, UAE, Mexico and Italy. Entire islands have been mined away to meet demand.

Like so many resource issues, demand for sand is shaped by neo-colonialism and environmental decline. Sand is being mined away far faster in developing countries as developed countries look towards them to source their grains. The environmental impacts of sand mining – coastal erosion, habitat destruction and saltwater intrusion just to name a few – have therefore hit developing countries harder. In a heating world where freshwater is such a scarce resource, sand depletion is also having impacts on other resource availability. 

By 2050, we will run out of construction grade sand. There are alternatives, but these are in primitive stages of development and nowhere near as accessible as the beachy grains we currently use. Countries are only going to continue to develop and require sand for construction – but with no viable alternative, and an inevitable price rise for remaining supply,  the problems are mounting. 

I would not say that sand depletion is the worst resource issue at present, but all natural resources are connected in a delicate environmental equilibrium. When one goes, the others aren’t far behind. Despite it being a decade since the UNEP report, the urgency of sand depletion has not really taken off. I am unsurprised; it is so often the case in this world where exploitation of the natural world is sidelined. A year and a bit on from my visit to Gropius Bau, I very often think about the global sand crisis and reflect on how possibly one of the most mundane commodities in this world has far more significance than many will ever know.