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)

Moroccan horsemen fire their rifles during a performance to celebrate the annual Moussem festival in El Jadida on August 6, 2023. (Photo by Fadel Senna/AFP Photo)

A government awareness poster for wearing surgical masks is seen reflected and upside-down in the Dambovita river in Bucharest, Romania, 19 November 2020. The poster, depicting a man wearing a surgical mask, reads: “I WEAR A MASK BECAUSE I KNOW THAT ONLY TOGETHER WE WILL SUCCEED!”. As the number of COVID-19 infections increased, authorities decided that wearing a protective mask should become mandatory at all times in all public places. (Photo by Robert Ghement/EPA/EFE)

An aerial view shows boats sailing in the marshes of Chibayish in Iraq's southern Dhi Qar province on February 8, 2025. (Photo by Asaad Niazi/AFP Photo)

Children play on top of an abandoned car at the “Aguerridos Liberator” shanty town in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, May 9, 2019. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Fisherman Jose Miguel Perez, whose nickname is “Taliban”, navigates the oil infested waters of Lake Maracaibo, near Cabimas, Venezuela, May 21, 2019. Nobody lives as closely with the environmental fallout of Venezuela's collapsing oil industry as the fishermen who scratch out an existence on the blackened, sticky shores of Lake Maracaibo. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

People carry drinks at 80s Bar in Damascus, Syria, March 11, 2016. In Damascus's Old City, just a mile from the battered frontline between government and rebel-held territory, young Syrians smoke, drink beer or soft drinks, and talk about anything but the war. The revival of activity in this once-vibrant quarter is part of efforts to project an air of normality in the Syrian capital, even as the five-year-old war that has killed more than 250,000 people and created 5 million refugees continues to rage nearby. (Photo by Omar Sanadiki/Reuters)

A man carries a sack of corn through the Comayaguela market on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, days after general eletions in Honduras, Tuesday, November 30, 2021. Free Party presidential candidate Xiomara Castro, the wife of ousted former president Manuel Zelaya, has taken a commanding lead in Honduras' elections, capping a 12-year effort. (Photo by Moises Castillo/AP Photo)