The world is facing a growing sand shortage, though, with less than 1,000 sand and gravel mines across the US, experts warn.

After water, sand is the world's most consumed raw material — used to make glass, concrete, asphalt and even silicon microchips.

The construction industry alone uses up to 50 billion tons of sand a year, and demand is set to soar because the world is expected to need two billion excess glass vials in the next two years as COVID-19 vaccines are distributed.

An impending shortage could throttle production of everything from smartphones to office buildings.

It could delay production of the billions of glass vials needed to get the coronavirus vaccine to populations around the world.

There has been a shortage in sand, gravel and crushed rock for the better part of a decade, fueled by growing building development and demand for smartphones and other personal tech that uses screens.

'We just think that sand is everywhere,' Pascal Peduzzi, a climate scientist with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said during a recent webinar hosted by think tank Chatham House, CNBC reported.

'We never thought we would run out of sand, but it is starting in some places,' Peduzzi added.

'It is about anticipating what can happen in the next decade or so because if we don't look forward, if we don't anticipate, we will have massive problems about sand supply but also about land planning.'

Peduzzi, the director of UNEP's Global Resource Information Database (GRID) in Geneva said panicking won't help, 'but it is time to take a look and change our perception about sand.'

Chatham House has described efforts to improve the management of sand resources as 'uneven.'

'This is partly due to unique geological features and geography, but also differences in local manifestations of the 'sand challenge,' national and regional demand for sand resources, as well as capacities to enforce or implement best practice assessment procedures, extractive practices, environmental management and restoration requirements,' the group said in a statement on its website.

According to the UNEP, approximately 40 to 50 billion metric tons of sand is used each year in the construction industry alone.

That's a 300 percent increase from just 20 years ago, and it

'This trend is expected to continue as demand is still growing due to urbanization, population growth and infrastructure development trends,' according to GRID's Global Sand Observatory Initiative.

While deserts comprise a third of the planet, desert sand is too smooth and round for use in construction.

And, since no one wants a sand mine in their backyard, extraction efforts are focused on more fragile environments — rivers, coastlines and seabeds — often in places like India and China.

It's already having a severe impact on their ecosystems and, as demand continues to outpace the rate of natural replenishment from the weathering of rocks by water and wind, GRID warns of rising environmental and sustainability problems.

Advocates are calling on corporations and governments to address the sand shortfall — establishing global standards and viable alternatives —while doing more to protect vulnerable habitats.

Researchers have also started looking at alternatives to sand, including volcanic ash, agricultural waste, and fly ash, a byproduct of burning coal.

There's also work being done with silica sand, made from tiny granules of quartz.

But 'the construction industry is very conservative,' Susan Bernal, a materials scientist at the University of Leeds, told The World. 'To utilize these new green alternative cements, or alternative aggregates, we need to comply with a great number of standards to make sure that, for instance, if we make a house it’s sufficiently safe for people to live in.'

Since sand is the chief component in glass, there's also been a global shortage of glass at least 2015, according to FiveThirtyEight.com.

Real estate developers sometimes have to wait months before they can install windows on bare skyscrapers.

Delays can be so significant and frustrating that the development company behind Hudson Yards got creative and built its own glass factory in Pennsylvania rather than wait

A lack of glass is of particular concern during the pandemic, given the billions of vials and syringes needed to get vaccines into arms around the globe.

The medical-glass industry was just beginning to catch up with demand in 2020, but the pandemic and subsequent vaccine rollout have set things back considerably.

Stevanato Group, an Italian manufacturer of vials, told Pharma Manufacturing that global demand for vials will rise by as much as 2 billion over the next two years.

Even if the vaccine is loaded into 10-dose vials, vaccine expert James Robinson told FiveThreeSix, that's still hundreds of millions of vials needed for this pandemic alone.

Just three companies — Corning, Schott and Nipro Pharma Corporation — manufacture most of the pharmaceutical glass tubing needed for vials and syringes.

New manufacturing facilities are expensive and there's high competition for the kind of angular sand needed to make glass.

Janssen, a division of Johnson & Johnson '[has] already preordered 250 million vials, and that might be all that's out there,' Robinson said. 'We're trying to procure another 200 million.'

Leaders from all three pharmaceutical glass companies say, in the midst of a global health crisis, they're working together to meet demand.

'The industry is putting aside the competitive spirit,' Corning general manager Brendan Mosher told Pharma Manufacturing. 'It feels like more than ever, that everyone is in this fight together.'

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9331099/The-world-running-sand-mean-shortage-glass-vials-Covid-vaccines.html

have you ever wondered after all these news there is even more sand to errect buildings

I only see UK complaining, there’s enough sand on the Sahara desert, they are free to relocate

Ok now....


But how can sand finish

I don't understand running out of sand tho.

What happened to those sands on the ocean beds? The Last time i checked the oceans cover most of the earth surface compared to dry land

Reminds me of this film set in the future where ppl were living on water and sand was scarce. (Waterworld I think,)

@ OP, the sahara has enough like someone said above.

Next news pls

How possible is that?

Let me build my own house first of before the earth runs out of sand.

Macsjebs, what about the sands in the seas all over the world? Have they started minning those ones?

Who even knows how those sands came into existence to conclude we are running out? God is the source as far as I'm concerned, therefore we can never run out.

Ignore those scientists.

Like Nigerians are running out of electricity.

No light for 8 days now.

The world is running out of everything. Climate change alarmists everywhere.

sahel, Kalahari... Namibia... unlimited sand.... infinity sand

What's not running out in the world right now? Perhaps only greed, selfishness and wickedness.

We go dey alright las las

they should come and buy our Sahara desert sand. It is wasting and encroaching inland

Last Last the world go out of human being

pozehnani:
How possible is that?

Let me build my own house first of before the earth runs out of sand.

Macsjebs, what about the sands in the seas all over the world? Have they started minning those ones?

Who even knows how those sands came into existence to conclude we are running out? God is the source as far as I'm concerned, therefore we can never run out.

Ignore those scientists.

Don't blame them, they have to do research so their Wages won't be a Waste lol

Junk

pozehnani:
How possible is that?

Let me build my own house first of before the earth runs out of sand.

Macsjebs, what about the sands in the seas all over the world? Have they started minning those ones?

Who even knows how those sands came into existence to conclude we are running out? God is the source as far as I'm concerned, therefore we can never run out.

Ignore those scientists.

This is not romance section. Stuffs like this is beyond your comprehension.

Yahman1:

Don't blame them, they have to do research so their Wages won't be a Waste lol

Lol... Ok. True that.

You are equally telling us that we will soon run out of peopl!

muller101:
This is not romance section. Stuffs like this is beyond your comprehension.

Keep quiet!

Look who's talking.

Ok, provide proofs that it's actually true or are you just going to sit down there and swallow hook line and sinker an unfound theory shoved down your throat by some researchers just because they are scientists? So scientist cant fabricate a lie just to validate their claims.? Is that what you think? Wise up.

In the meantime, Shift abeg.

Out of sand?










I still sell affordable laptops with free delivery and pay on delivery.
Details on my signature

Abegii make all these people leave us a beg.no b everytime dey go dey put fear for our mind.Very soon they would say we are running out of air

No wonder sandals dey cost

Petyr1:
What happened to those sands on the ocean beds? The Last time i checked the oceans cover most of the earth surface compared to dry land

There's a planet made out of diamonds.

Problem is how to get it... same with the sand on the ocean floor.

The economics might not work out because of depth.

Also not all is covered with sand.

Come to Africa we get plenty sand

Nothing wey sand no go see for humans hand

THEY SHOULD DISMANTLE THEIR BUILDINGS IF THEY REALLY NEED SAND... Ewo loshi gan?

Sand wey full Okearo matogun.

Naija has sand in excess, if e finish, we go go carry inside sea.. Afterall Na we get am

FatherCHRISTMAS:
have you ever wondered after all these news there is even more sand to errect buildings

Yeah. Same thing they said about oil.

issorite