An Indian rag picker collects plastic bags at an industrial area on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Tuesday, June 5, 2018. The U.N. says government bans on plastic can be effective in cutting back on waste but poor planning and follow-through have left many such bans ineffective. (Photo by Channi Anand/AP Photo)

In this November 18, 2014 photo, Murshida, 12, sits on the lap of her mother Marjina as the train leaves for their village in West Bengal, at a railway station in New Delhi, India. Six months ago, Marjina stepped off a train in New Delhi with her two children, hoping to find a better life after her husband abandoned them without so much as a goodbye. The family spent their days at a landfill picking through other people’s garbage to find salvageable bits to resell or recycle. After six months of poverty, illness and shame, they returned to that train station in New Delhi, headed back to an uncertain future to their hometown in West Bengal. (Photo by Altaf Qadri/AP Photo)

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 woman wearing a mask walk in a street in a Yonghegong Lama temple compound seen shrouded in smog in Beijing, China, 30 November 2015. Beijing issued an orange alert for heavy smog 30 November, the highest level this year. Authorities in the Chinese capital warned of 'severe pollution' and advised the capital's 20 million inhabitants to stay indoors. (Photo by How Hwee Young/EPA)

Vultures gather to eat waste in Bica beach, on the banks of the Guanabara Bay, with the Sugar Loaf mountain in background, 500 days ahead the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro March 24, 2015. As part of its Olympic bid, Rio promised to clean up 80 percent of the bay for the games. But local government officials have already admitted that a cleanup by 2016 is not achievable. Despite millions of dollars of investment over the years, the bay still stinks of sewage. Sailors who visited the city for test events complained of a floating sofa and a dead dog in the water. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

An employee sorts waste at the Wecycler recycling centre in Ebutte Meta district in Lagos, Nigeria July 28, 2016. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

Pedestrians cover their face as they walk along the dusty road in Kathmandu, Nepal February 27, 2017. Nepal has forced 2,500 old vehicles off roads in its capital city of Kathmandu, part of a fight against alarming air pollution levels that have hit nine times World Health Organisation (WHO) limits. Air pollution has been a chronic problem in rapidly growing Kathmandu, which sits in a Himalayan valley and is home to more than 3mn people. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Children stand in a boat at the banks of the polluted Yamuna River during a dust haze as they wait to give a ride to worshippers in New Delhi during World Environment Day June 5, 2010. (Photo by Reinhard Krause/Reuters)