You Can’t Burn Them All

With growing consumerist lifestyles worldwide, waste management is one of humanity's biggest challenges.

As the world’s biggest manufacturing country, China continues battling overflowing waste. By 2023, the garbage disposed of China had reached 254.1 million tonnes. To accommodate the global demand for fast fashion, about 26 million tonnes of discarded clothing are in Chinese landfills each year.

Fortunately, with the growth in population and economy, environmental awareness is on the rise. The Chinese government recently banned foreign waste imports and introduced new initiatives for waste management, including the implementation of AI technology to encourage more recycling.

March 18th is Global Recycling Day. If we take just one moment to think of how our burning waste pollutes the atmosphere we all share, would it be so hard to spend a few minutes sorting through the remnants of our spending?

This award-winning photograph is from the seventh season, “The Moment”, of the Hamdan bin Mohamed bin Rashid al Maktoum International Photography Award (HIPA) Archive. The Climate Tribe has partnered with HIPA, leveraging the power of photography to inspire global awareness of sustainability and advance climate action.