The Next Sustainability Crisis: Humans Are Using So Much Sand That We May Actually Run Out

Objects made of Finite, a material developed by students from Imperial College London using desert sand. Image Courtesy of FiniteSand is the most-consumed natural resource in the world after water and air. Modern cities are built out of it. In the construction industry alone, it is estimated that 25 billion tons of sand and gravel are used every year. That may sound a lot, but it’s not a surprising figure when you consider how everything you’re surrounded with is probably made of the