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)

“The RSPB’s Snettisham Nature Reserve lies on the edge of The Wash, one of the most important bird estuaries in the United Kingdom. The Wash, on England’s east coast, supports over 300,000 birds, and Snettisham sometimes holds more than a third of them”. – The Palm Beach Post. Photo: Waders flock together seeking new feeding grounds during the incoming tide. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images via The Palm Beach Post)

Virgin Galactic's new spaceship N202VG (bottom L) is seen behind the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft mothership (front), which landed safely after splitting from SpaceShipTwo, in a hangar at Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, November 4, 2014. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Medical residents, who removed their clothes to protest against working conditions, take part on a protest during a strike in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, October 20, 2020. Regional authorities across Spain continue to tighten restrictions against a sharp resurgence of coronavirus infections that is bringing the country’s cumulative caseload close to one million infections, the highest tally in western Europe. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

A regional train passes fog-covered fields in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, early Friday, October 7, 2022. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

People run away as a building is toppled during a controlled demolition as part of an urban transformation in Ankara, Turkey, February 3, 2014. (Photo by Serap Doganyigit/Reuters)

A Chinese rescuer evacuates a young boy from flooded areas caused by heavy rains in Changsha city, central China's Hunan provincehangsha, capital of Hunan on July 3, 2017. (Photo by Imaginechina/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Enthusiast dressed as zombies take part in the Zombie Walk event on September 14, 2019 in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, within the framework of the 12th edition of the European Fantastic Film festival, which runs from September 14 to 22. (Photo by Frederick Florin/AFP Photo)