The sandcastle economy: How to recycle a building

The world is running out of sand. Is circular thinking the solution?

Sand is everywhere in cities: it’s in the pillars of skyscrapers, the surfaces of roads and the walls of our homes. But sand — specifically river and beach sand needed for building — is running out, and without it the construction industry faces a crisis.

In this video we explore how a fresh framework for thinking about construction and the economy could help to combat the sand crisis and preserve the value of materials for decades to come. A circular model would mean less sand ending up in landfill, less energy wasted during construction and a more sustainable industry that benefits businesses and the planet.

This economic transformation will require collaboration between industry, government and academia — if we are to sustain our sandcastle cities into the future.

[WilfForrow]

Brilliantly constructed video. Who knew why building sand is different from desert sand? And that the sand of time is running out for sand, as well as for CO2. As concrete accounts for 4%-8% of global CO2, re-using concrete units eliminates nearly all it's CO2 load. Just need architects to move to standard sized components.

[SandcastleAndy]

I think linking slave labour to sand production is a bit of a stretch - but recycling will never gain any traction as its pure cost and greed will not pay for it - recycling also has a "greed" cost in that other forms of building that could use the recycling materials in the concrete waste yard and build with them - but the cost of moving the materials negates any profitability that makes the economics work - in any form - also the bureaucracy of recycling and health and safety management does not allow easy recycling or reasonable in cost. Sustainability and value cannot compete with greed. Co-operation begins with communication which forms a partnership but while greed and bean counters control whether a project goes forward at all - there is not much future for a model such as this - even though enthusiasm is always there - I recycled what others did not want in the UK for nearly 30 years but was eventually driven out of the uk by insane bureaucracy and legislation and the fear it caused. It was a shame as folks are always impressed with great recycling but few will pay for it. This is not a statement based on whining - its based on reality - real recycling projects with real people and companies like Groundwork and Severn Trent Water. Keep going Concrete lovers!. Also its all over the world - I am in Texas and watched and 30 story building demolished - and instead of recycling it into a beach head and event area ACROSS THE STREET - it was all removed to over 40 miles away for people to profit from. Defied belief. And yes, I am a sandcastle builder who recycles the beach every day so i like to think i know about both worlds. The model we currently build with is insane - poorly insulated and energy inefficient. - reducing carbon footprints starts with less energy use and that begines at home - insulate homes efficiently and power consumption drops - but why would greed want that? LOL - a quantum shift is needed but we are too stupid to know we are actually burying ourselves.

[victimovtalent]

Crushing concrete waste to sand is more stable from cracking, i'm used it for making walls

[footfault]

Technology or process to convert desert sand into a suitable property must be developed, instead of exploiting too much the easily available one. UK would show examples to the world, doesn't she? Good luck!

[ManujSharma]

Can be called polygonal economy though circular is also ok.

[BobQuigley]

Good to see this situation is being addressed. Next question is we're now burning through the equivalent fossil fuel energy of 100 billion barrels per year. This is 10 million times faster than the sun took to create the plants and creatures that fossil fuels came from. It's grown every year. We're 8 billion precious humans today and every year another 80 million net new precious humans join us. Just to accommodate these folks requires construction of one New York City worth of infrastructure food education healthcare environment etc etc EVERY SINGLE MONTH. Science might be able to provide a solution for the sand problem. Currently there's nothing on the science agenda that is close to addressing replacements for the 100 billion barrels of fossil fuels.

[olampros]

Not a good proposition. Old concrete blocks cannot be reused because the concrete has a finite lifetime. Additionally, building like Lego will make the buildings much worse and more expensive because now the architecture and materials have been optimized for each particular building.

[Giantkelp]

There are more living cells than all the grains of sand on Earth.

[kodiakbear]

Sand. Broca's area, or the Broca area is a region in the frontal lobe of the dominant hemisphere, usually the left, of the brain with functions linked to speech production.

[thethirdchimpanzee]

I wonder if we could just MAKE more sand, the way that nature does...from like...grinding up rocks. Heck, grinding up sandstone even.

What about importing regolith from asteroids for construction...? Have robots harvest it and package it into some kind of aerodynamic drop-pods, and drop it on a desert salt flat somewhere. I just don't know how much all that incoming material will heat up the atmosphere...???

[ropro]

Circular economy: Nice idea on paper, but will it ever happen in reality...