Seaworthy Sunday: Turning Old Beer Bottles Into Sand

With glass recycling down the toilet and much of glass is Not Recycled. There is a new innovation which takes old beer bottles and make into sand. Sand?? One would think that sand is unlimited, but in reality the world is running out of sand. Sand is used in construction, all that mortar, plaster, concrete and asphalt use sand. Where do companies get sand? Oceans and beaches and the results, 2/3 of the beaches in the world are retreating.

Think about it, every road, every building, every piece of glass uses sand. Sand is used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, electronics. Even organized crime has gotten into illegal sand and soil.

• Sand is the #1 most widely consumed natural resource on the planet after fresh water.
• 15 billion tons, with a respective trade volume of 70 billion dollars globally.
• 2010, nations mined about 11 billion tonnes of sand just for construction.
• 8.9 billion worth of sand extraction in the United States in 2016
• 200 tons of sand are needed to build a medium-sized house
• Most of the sand today is from the ocean floor.
• Since 2005 at least 24 small islands have disappeared as a result of erosion caused by illegal sand mining in Indonesia.
• US Geological Survey: China, India, Brazil, the U.S., and Turkey are the world’s biggest concrete producers.

This taking of sand is very, very bad for the environment. Sand mining has a huge impact on the environment.  Flooding, killing off native plants and animals, land loss, damages roads, bridges, embankments and beaches. It pollutes rivers and groundwater. It is also said that these numbers are greatly under estimated.

But a new company out of New Zealand has come to the rescue to recycle at any establishment beer bottles in a very easy process. All you do is ‘Push the container through a bottle-shaped hole, then watch as a vacuum system removes silica dust and plastic labels, leaving behind pure glass sand. Each bottle produces 200 grams of powder substitute in about five seconds.”

It Reads barcoded labels, crushes bottles, reduces theft, saves space, eliminates oder and bugs, it’s “Green”, easy to use, and can adapt to any distributor and recycle process. Can be used at: * any establishment (on-premise / off-premise) that sells bottle beer * any establishment that accepts beer bottles for returnable refund.

On a personal note, I find lots and lots of glass in particular glass beer bottles on the beach and in trash cans. In fact I would guess-estimate that it would be very easy to pick up over 100 bottles of glass beer bottle every day on the beach. These do NOT get recycled by the city. Now that I know about the sand crisis, I am appalled and will start digging out those bottles out of the trash cans.

Bottom line, sand is a precious commodity that I (we) have taken for granted. When I think of the amount of waste that we send to the landfills, it makes me sick to my stomach.

Resources

Smithsonian Magazine: The World Is Running Out of Sand 

Environmental Justics: The World Is Running Out of Sand 

Science Magazine: A Looming Tragedy of Sand 

The Conversation: The World is Facing a Global Sand Crisis ; Vietnam domestic demand for sand exceeds the country’s total reserves. If this mismatch continues, the country may run out of construction sand by 2020, according to recent statements from the country’s Ministry of Construction…..

World Wildlife Uncovering Sand Mining Impact on Rivers 

The Guardian: The Mining Mafias Killing Each Other For Sand ; Morocco, half of the sand used for construction comes from illegal mining. And in Malaysia, dozens of officials were charged for accepting bribes and sexual favours in exchange for allowing illegally mined sand to be smuggled out of the country…..

New Scientist: Meet the Mafias Making Buckets from Illegal Sand Mining ;  Italy, sand is simply a new strand of the traditional mafia’s activities. In India, the researchers found that groups are active in 12 of the country’s 29 states. They often mine other commodities such as manganese, which is used to make magnetic metal alloys, and sometimes they use extreme violence to exert control over resources

Sand Wars Documentary 

Earth 911 Glass Recycling Statistics