“...concrete is a prime target for researchers developing greener materials...
...crumbs can then be used to replace a certain proportion of the sand in the mix...
...lessening the reliance on the natural material...”
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Is there a shortage of sand that I am unaware of?
Yes, the deserts are shrinking and the seas are rising................
It is the amount of CO2 released in the production of concrete that environmentalists seem to have as a target.
Shortage of sand. My thought precisely. Sand, I would imagine, is a LOT more eco friendly when you consider the energy expended turn tires into crumbs. Did you hear that, Greenies? A hell of a lot more energy than sifting and washing gravel to get sand. Having said that, the crumbs sound like a heckuva concept. Done a bit of concrete work. Watched a pour last year, a slab with no rebar. Fiberglass threads instead. Said to be every bit as durable as rebar reinforced. Seems to have lasted without fractures over the winter. Pretty impressive. I’d use the rubber crumbs if it were economical. And if it didn’t look like crap.
Good sand is becoming rather scarce, in my part of the world, anyway. Desert sand and beach sand are useless for concrete and mortar, as they do not have the requisite sharpness and angularity.
I did many offshore sand searches for dredging and reclamation projects in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Most were for projects in Singapore, and the greatest part of the sand dredged came from Indonesian waters. After some snit between Indonesia and Singapore, Indonesia banned the export of sand, and now most of the sand consumed in Singapore for concrete and reclamation is dredged offshore Thailand and carried all the way to S’pore, ~500 miles.
I still do a lot of concrete and cement work in Jakarta, and the price of good sand has risen 250% in the last ten years. Most of the good sand is taken from rivers and quarries and the distances get further all the time. Construction in Jakarta alone consumes some 20 000 tonnes of sand daily.
Is there a shortage of sand that I am unaware of?
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Yes there is! Poland has bee importing sand from the Middle East for a long time. Their plan has been to drill in the sand for their own oil.
After decades of failure, Poland has realized that somewhere there has been failures in their drilling process. Many Polish engineers have lost their jobs nd some are blaming Middle East governments of sending poor quality sand.