How sand mining threatens our planet—and what we can do about it

Every year, more than 50 billion tons of sand and gravel (hereafter ‘sand’) are mined from rivers, lakes, oceans, and the land. We don’t think about it much but sand currently provides the material basis for our cities and lifestyles. It forms the concrete in our buildings, the glass in our windows, and even the silicon chips in our smartphones.

But the demand for the types of sand that are currently used as a resource is well beyond the rate of natural replenishment in many places. The social-ecological costs of this immense extraction of geological resources are growing rapidly.

“Without urgent action, unchecked sand mining risks decreasing our resilience to climate change, further damaging ecosystems, and deepening social inequalities and biodiversity loss,” says Jean-Baptiste Jouffray, researcher at the Center for Ocean Solutions, Standford University, and affiliated with Stockholm Resilience Centre.

The unseen cost of sand mining

Sand mining often happens out of sight, but its consequences are impactful, and in many cases, devastating. According to two recent studies published in One Earth, by Centre researchers Kiran Pereira and Jean-Baptiste Jouffray and co-authors, sand extraction has far-reaching effects worldwide.

The sand crisis poses a complex set of challenges. For millions of people living in poverty, sand extraction offers a crucial source of livelihoods and income. While limited and carefully regulated extraction can help meet the Sustainable Development Goals, in many places, it is causing extensive local and transboundary harm.

In rapidly urbanizing areas, sand extraction is impacting water, food and coastal security, leading to the loss of traditional livelihoods such as fishing, farming and eco-tourism, while also impacting biodiversity and destroying critical ecosystems.

In some regions, the rise of sand mafia has brought intimidation, violence and even loss of lives due to a nexus between business and political interests . These mounting social-ecological costs are often treated as negative externalities - unacknowledged and unaddressed by conventional practices - thereby worsening the sand crisis and undermining pathways to equitable and sustainable development.

Dredging in Marine Protected Areas

One of the studies, led by Aurora Torres at the University of Alicante in Spain, in which Jean-Baptiste Jouffray was a co-author, shows that the 'dredging frontier’ is expanding into new areas and intensifying in existing ones. Almost half of the global operators dredged for some time each year in Marine Protected Areas, highlighting the need to improve governance.

This does not necessarily imply unlawful activity because not all Marine Protected Areas prohibit sand mining. But it shows regions where sand extraction and rich biodiversity overlap and conservation goals could be compromised. It highlights the urgent need to mitigate demand for the world’s most mined materials.

Moving from sand crisis to sand sufficiency

So how could the sand crisis be addressed? In the second study by Centre researchers Kiran Pereira and Jean-Baptiste Jouffray, and other co-authors including Jan Kuiper, Colette Wabnitz and Lova Schildt, the team argue for two overlooked approaches – sand sufficiency and circularity – to mitigate rising demand while safeguarding the ecological limits and social foundation of sand use in the Anthropocene.

The circular economy calls for moving beyond the current “take-make-dispose” approach that is making the construction sector the biggest consumer of raw materials and contributing to huge wastes in landfills. There are many resources that can guide this transition. For instance as the study points out, architect, academic and environmental activist, Duncan Baker-Brown, author of the book Re-Use Atlas, urges the construction sector to “mine the Anthroposphere” instead of further depleting the natural world.

A call for systemic demand reduction

While circularity can mitigate demand, it alone cannot fully address the growing need for sand and its alternatives.

“The use of construction materials and built-up areas is projected to outpace global population growth by 2060. Such insatiable demand is irreconcilable with the need to build within planetary boundaries,” says Pereira.

Time is of the essence for effective climate and biodiversity action in a rapidly narrowing window of opportunity. Decisions and investments made today for the built environment will have lasting implications for humanity and the planet. The authors call on policymakers to prioritise systemic demand reduction by curbing commodification of housing, improving occupancy rates, repurposing buildings, and integrating resource sufficiency alongside circularity measures. Developing a shared vision for sand use, guided by the principles of sufficiency and circularity, offers a promising path forward.

Other co-authors of the two articles are affiliated with Ghent University and the Institute of Natural Sciences in Belgium, Michigan State University, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the University of California Santa Barbara, the University of Geneva in Switzerland, the University of Leeds in the UK and Stanford University in the U.S.