Solution to World’s Largest Waste Stream: Make Sand

After water, sand is the most exploited natural resource on the planet. However, its extraction from seas, rivers, beaches and quarries has an impact on the environment and surrounding communities. A new study by researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI) has found that a step-change in mineral processing could drastically reduce mineral waste – the world’s largest waste stream – while creating a sustainable source of sand. Coined “ore-sand”, this material has the potential to address two global sustainability challenges simultaneously, according to the report ‘‘Ore-sand: A potential new solution to the mine tailings and global sand sustainability crises’’.

Concrete, asphalt, glass, electronic chips: sand has many applications. Composed of small mineral particles, this granular material comes from sensitive dynamic environments such as seas, beaches, lakes and rivers or, from static land-based environments such as ancient river deposits and rock quarries. It is estimated that 50 billion tons of sand are used each year. Over the past two decades demand has tripled primarily due to urbanisation and population growth, a trend which is expected to continue with aggregates use reaching beyond 50 Bt per year by 2030.

In addition to the risks of local shortages, the extraction of such a volume of sand has environmental and societal consequences. For example, it is leading to erosion in river banks, which significantly increases the risk of flooding. In some countries, sand mining has caused loss of livelihoods in communities.

Read more at: Universite de Geneve

Over the past two decades demand has tripled primarily due to urbanisation and population growth, a trend which is expected to continue with aggregates use reaching beyond 50 Bt per year by 2030. (Photo Credit: UNIGE/UQ)