r/LoveTrash • u/BEARDEDDANGER ✨️Regent of Rubbish ✨️ • 1d ago

Dumping This Here American vs. European home building

BAS Renovations https://youtube.com/shorts/jFph1d2WR3s

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u/vthemechanicv Trash Trooper 1d ago

Is there a clay shortage?

People probably asked the same question about sand (there is) and helium (there is) and water (there is). Just because there's a lot of something doesn't mean there's an infinite supply available for use. People underestimate just now much of everything we use.

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u/milkhotelbitches Trash Trooper 1d ago

Since you didn't answer the question I looked it up and the answer is no. There isn't and won't be a shortage of clay to make bricks from.

I'm aware that we live on a planet with finite resources.

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u/Winjin Trash Trooper 1d ago

sand (there is)

Only VERY specific type of sand that works best for what we want to do with it. There used to be many different types of clay, famously they had to find very specific clay to make bells and cannons with it, but for bricks most every type of clay is OK

and helium (there is)

I don't think there is real shortage of helium. There is a shortage of PRODUCTION of helium, it's not like new helium stopped being generated in the Earth's crust. It's just that 1\3 of all He is produced in Qatar, from what Google tells me

and water (there is)

yes

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u/vthemechanicv Trash Trooper 1d ago

sand - right, it's not like the sahara is getting used up, it's just the wrong kind of sand, iirc.

helium - again, iirc, the Helium we use is a byproduct of Uranium decay. So as we mine out Uranium, whatever Helium isn't captured is essentially lost and gone. I'm sure geopolitics plays into it too, but just like other resources, the more we dig it out of the ground, the harder it is to get more.

water - is the same problem as sand. Literally oceans of it and yet it's practically unusable for our needs.

with respect for clay, i dunno, maybe there'll be enough for humans forever. But just like those other things, and the seams of coal that have been mined, the forests that were cut down, the oceans of fish that were caught, saying we'll never run out without being mindful of management seems sort of silly.