Electronic Green Journal

Since 2013, there has been a proliferation of opinion pieces pertaining to a global shortage of sand.  Because of the current volume of such articles, the situation is taken as fact and industries like fiberglass insulation manufacturers are being criticized for exploiting the earth’s dwindling supply of sand.  Research has shown that these are sensationalized headlines (rather than actual scientific reporting) and they are proliferating because they benefit author of opinion and social media content.  The genesis of the popular sand shortage story can be traced to a 2013 documentary, Sand Wars, and an unintentional foundational basis for the issue derived from a short discussion on international trading and island building in the book, Sand, The Never-Ending Story.  Extensive research conducted for this article confirms that there is no general, worldwide shortage of sand; instead, there are only isolated shortages in some areas outside the US.  Most importantly, the sand that is the subject of the purported global sand shortage stories is not the same sand (industrial sand) that is used by the fiberglass industry.  Finally, that industry’s use of industrial sand has declined over time as it increases the use of recycled glass cullet as a sand substitute.