Comment by collabs
4 days ago
> By contrast, there is no danger of running out of paper. We can always grow more trees, and that is in fact a decent way of removing carbon from the atmosphere. The silicon used to make glass is one of the most abundant elements on Earth.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but from what I understand, not all sand is created equal. Desert sand, like in the Sahara Desert, is eroded by wind. The smooth, round, and tiny grains are practically useless for both construction concrete and high-grade glassmaking. We want something called silica sand. Moreover, while industrial sand may be abundant worldwide, the same localized shortages that we face with petroleum or cobalt (from the article) also apply to sand.
On one hand, you are not wrong, sands differ in qualities, but the question is what you need to make from it. Glass-grade sands aren't everywhere, but they are abundant anyway. Some industries, like solar panels production, require higher purity, and such sands reserves are way more limited.
What I left unsaid to be polite was if they missed/hand waved something that even I know, what else is missing from this analysis? It feels like a gross oversimplification of a very real, very multifaceted problem.
I don't think it's fair, while "one of the most abundant" isn't well-nuanced wording, but the argument is that glassmaking won't exhaust glass-grade sands in historically near times, and it's true.
To add more fuel to your well-lit (!) fire, landfill projects also cannot use desert sand for similar reasons. It really needs sand from a river because it can create a stable bed for soil in a way that desert sand cannot.