It is said that there are 500 quadrillion grains of sand on planet Earth. Sand is used in various applications ranging from making glass to being a key ingredient of mortar, plaster, concrete, and asphalt paving. With global urbanization, the ever-increasing demand for sand has reached a point where the depletion rate of sand is rapidly exceeding its natural renewal rate worldwide, according to a 2014 United Nations Environment Programme report.
Sand is the most extracted natural resource on the planet, exceeding freshwater and fossil fuels with the annual global consumption of sand estimated to be 15 billion tons, worth around $70 billion. As the demand for construction sand continues to grow, illegal sand mining operations have sprung up around the world to meet this demand, creating a booming black market for sand.
Looking for a solution, a team of designers and engineers have instead opted to use desert sand as a building material, which has little value and or application in the construction industry as its grains are too smooth and fine to bind together. By using desert sand as its main component and combining it with other abundant fine powders, a new composite material called Finite has been created. It has the same compression strength as residential concrete but unlike concrete, it is biodegradable and can also be melted down and reused.
To learn more about this material, click the link below.
