Sustainable development goal target 12.5 is to reduce waste. But with a planet increasingly dependent on technology, is that even possible? As of today, over 30m tonnes of electronic waste has been thrown out so far this year, according to the World Counts. Most e-waste is sent to landfills in Asia and Africa where it is recycled by hand, exposing the people who do it to environmental hazards. Kai Loeffelbein’s photographs of e-waste recycling in Guiyu, southern China show what happens to discarded computers. (Photo by Kai Loeffelbein/laif Agentur)
A Cossack slashes a watermelon with a sabre during a sabre-cutting competition in the village of Novosvetlovsky, Rostov region, on August 27, 2023. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)
A General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper stands on the runway during “Black Dart”, a live-fly, live fire demonstration of 55 unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, at Naval Base Ventura County Sea Range, Point Mugu, near Oxnard, California July 31, 2015. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Reuters)
A young evacuee of Japanese ancestry waits with the family baggage before leaving by bus for an assembly center in California, in this April 1942 handout photo. February 19, 2017 marks the 75th anniversary of FDR signing executive order 9066, authorizing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War Two. (Photo by Courtesy Clem Albers/Department of the Interior/War Relocation Authority/National Archives/Reuters)
Men push a car stucking in the mud on a motorway in Nimba County, Liberia, 28 July 2019. Most highway roads in the rural parts of the country are unpaved. The government of President George Weah has promised to build roads to connect all big cites of Liberia. (Photo by Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA/EFE)
Chinese relative of a missing passenger on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 reacts as she weeps outside the main gate of the Lama Temple on March 8, 2015 in Beijing, China. Foreign and local media were prevented by Chinese police from covering the relatives visit to the temple where they tried to pray .There were 239 people on board the flight when it disappeared March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. After one year and an exhaustive search, investigators still have no clue as to the whereabouts of the missing airliner. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
A Capetonian watches the sun rise from the top of Signal Hill as smoke engulfs the city of Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday April 20, 2021. A massive fire spreading on the slopes of the city's famed Table Mountain, at right, is kept under control as firemen and helicopters take advantage of the low winds to contain the blaze. (Photo by Jerome Delay/AP Photo)