Sand is money

And so, people are murdered, river beds and beaches are stripped, islands disappear, fish and birds are killed. That's because sand is used as a main ingredient in cement and concrete in buildings, to make glass, in roads and in massive land reclamation projects. Desert sand does not fit the bill since it is too round and does not stick together as well as the rougher sand produced by water erosion. We use a lot of sand. If all the sand used by humans in a single year was turned into a wall it would be 20 metres high, 20 metres wide and stretch all the way around the equator.