Sand mining: the environmental challenge you’ve probably never heard of

Jun 30, 2022

Sand mining: estimates suggest that between 32 and 50 billion tonnes of sand and gravel are extracted from the Earth each year. Image: REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares

Kate Whiting

Senior Writer, Forum Agenda

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Future of the Environment is affecting economies, industries and global issues

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Future of the Environment

The environmental impacts of sand mining. Image: UNEP

Key features and processes considered in a coastal impact study for aggregate dredging.

Coastal features that could be affected by sand and gravel mining. Image: UNEP

10 Recommendations for Averting a Sand Crisis

How the UNEP says we can avoid a sand crisis. Image: UNEP

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.