Cement, Energy and Environment

Mankind has been blessed with fairly abundant natural resources. Society has to face the fury of nature, if they are over exploited. Some mes it may be catastrophic. One such disaster was witnessed in North Eastern & Konkan parts of India. Indiscriminate mining of Sand also amounts to overexploita on of the natural resources, adversely impac ng the environment in several ways. It is also impera ve to keep pace with the growth in construc on and sand is one of the vital construc on materials. One of the a rac ve alterna ves to Sand is Manufactured Sand. It possesses proper es similar to that of river sand and is a more sustainable construc on material. Sand is a vital ingredient in making two most used construc on materials viz. cement concrete and mortar. Tradi onally River sand, which is formed by natural weathering of rocks over many years, is preferred as fine aggregate. The economic development fuelling the growth of infrastructure and housing generates huge demand for building materials like sand. The indiscriminate mining of sand from riverbeds is posing a serious threat to environment such as erosion of riverbed and banks, triggering landslides, loss of vegeta on on the bank of rivers, lowering the underground water table etc. Hence, sand mining from riverbeds is being restricted or banned by the authori es. Controlling extrac on along rivers has caused the illegal ac vi es to spread into hillside and farmlands, crea ng public hazards such as landslide, deep ponds, and hanging cliffs. This sand extracted from fields (popularly known as filter sand), in addi on to deple ng the fer le top soil, impairs the quality of concrete / mortar. Manufactured sand, which is obtained by crushing the rock, is emerging as a viable alterna ve to river sand. This material is in use for quite some me in developed countries. The use of this sand (also called ar ficial sand, M- Dr V Ramachandra, Senior Vice President, Head (Tech Services), UltraTech Cement Ltd, Mumbai MANUFACTURED SAND – A SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONFOR THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY 1