A man drinks at a "colored" water cooler in a streetcar terminal in Oklahoma City, July 1939. (Photo by Reuters/Library of Congress)

Rosita, a character from the children's television series Sesame Street, gestures in front of Abraham Lincoln's portrait, during an event with children hosted by U.S. first lady Jill Biden of as part of the Christmas decoration and holiday reception kickoff at the White House, in Washington, U.S., November 29, 2021. (Photo by Jonathan Ernst /Reuters)

A cat disrupts between Mexico's Tigres UANL and Real Salt Lake during a quarterfinals match as part of the Leagues Cup 2019 at Rio Tinto Stadium on July 24, 2019 in Sandy, Utah. (Photo by Jeff Swinger/USA TODAY Sports)

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue adjusts his mask before an event in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, May 19, 2020, in Washington. (Photo by Evan Vucci/AP Photo)

Los Angeles Rams cheerleaders celebrate on the field with the confetti after the Rams 20-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in a NFC championship football game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Sunday, January 30, 2022. (Photo by Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports)

Children play marbles on the dirt in Garut, West Java, Indonesia on October 17, 2025. This traditional game, which was popular in the 1980s, is now rarely played by children due to the increasing popularity of modern games with advanced technology. According to a survey by the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI), more than 71.3% of school-age children own gadgets and play them for a considerable amount of time each day, and as many as 79% of child respondents are allowed to play gadgets for purposes other than learning. (Photo by Algi Febri Sugita/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Leilani Franco has made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the fastest human backbend walk, traveling in a backbend position a distance of 20 meters (65 ft 7.2 in) in a time of 10.05 seconds. (Photo by PA Wire)

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)