Students pose for a pictures taken by their friends during spring break on the beach in the resort city of Cancun, Mexico, February 27, 2009. (Photo by Israel Leal/AP Photo)

Denver Broncos cheerleaders during the third quarter. The Denver Broncos played the Kansas City Chiefs at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo. on September 14, 2014. (Photo by Aaron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

Participants wearing masks during a hazy day at the Beijing International Marathon in front of Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, October 19, 2014. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

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)

in Qayyarah, about 31 miles (50 km) south of Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, October 23, 2016.in Qayyarah, some 50 kilometers south of Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016. Islamic State fighters torched a sulfur plant south of Mosul, sending a cloud of toxic fumes into the air that mingled with oil wells the militants had lit on fire to create a smoke screen. (Photo by Marko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo)

A visitor and an employee dressed as Snegurochka (Snow Maiden), the granddaughter of Ded Moroz (Russian equivalent of Santa Claus), pose for a picture inside an upside down house, constructed as an attraction for local residents and tourists and located at the Royev Ruchey Park of Flora and Fauna in the suburbs of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, December 7, 2016. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

A demonstrator is detained by police officers during clashes in downtown Barcelona, Spain, Friday, October 30, 2020. Clashes have erupted in a central Barcelona square between anti-riot police and hundreds who had gathered to protest the mandatory closure of bars, restaurants and other businesses in the latest effort to rein in on coronavirus outbreaks. (Photo by Joan Mateu/AP Photo)

A man takes a dip inside a chapel during celebrations of the Orthodox Christian feast of Epiphany in Saint Petersburg, Russia on January 19, 2020. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)