Bringing Sand to the Beach

Supplying beaches with sand is ill-advised.  For one thing, it is really tough to get out of the car’s carpet.  And have you seen gas prices?  At these levels, the last thing you need is extra weight forcing you to use more petrol as you motor toward the water.  But these are strange times.  We’re still emerging from the pandemic-related economic shutdown while headlines regarding shortages are about the only thing in oversupply.  You can now add sand to the growing list of potential scarcity.

As it turns out, sand is an incredibly useful material.  Long before Atlas was started, I provided labor to a general contractor.  My role was pretty much getting yelled at for mixing concrete too slowly, or too dry, or then too wet.  One of the key components of the perfect mix (yeah, I got there eventually) is sand.  And not just any sand, it must be course enough to bind to the other materials, creating an effective mortar.  Sand from places like the Sahara is unsuitable because it is too fine.  How about the phone or computer on which you’re reading this?  While you don’t want sand to get in its sealed case, the base material was likely required to harvest silica for the silicon chips.

All of these modern uses are creating a shortage of sand.  Fortunately, a New Zealand Brewery is doing its part to create more of it.  They have figured out a way of turning empty bottles into a sand substitute.  This material can be used in a variety of ways, including as mulch, in golf bunkers, in water filtration systems, or concrete. It could help beaches alleviate the pressure from a global economy heavily dependent on consumption.