World Press Photo 2018: Environment Stories Winner
Humans are producing more waste than ever before. According to research by the World Bank, the world generates 3.5 million tonnes of solid waste a day, ten times the amount of a century ago. Rising population numbers and increasing economic prosperity fuel the growth, and as countries become richer, the composition of their waste changes to include more packaging, electronic components and broken appliances, and less organic matter. Landfills and waste dumps are filling up, and the World Economic Forum reports that by 2050 there will be so much plastic floating in the world’s oceans that it will outweigh the fish. A documentation of waste management systems in metropolises across the world investigates how different societies manage - or mismanage - their waste.
Garbage is collected in the center of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, July 9, 2017. In most neighborhoods of the city, garbage is deposited in underground containers to await removal, but in some parts of the historic center it is still left on the streets to be collected on certain days.
PHOTO: KADIR VAN LOHUIZEN FOR NOOR IMAGES
Waste is unloaded at Shizai paper recycling plant, which has been processing waste since 1969, in Tokyo, Japan, on Aug 23, 2017.
PHOTO: KADIR VAN LOHUIZEN FOR NOOR IMAGES
A barge with more than 300 tonnes of mainly plastic is on its way from the Bronx to a recycling plant in Brooklyn, New York, USA, on May 26, 2016. Until the mid-1990s, New York’s primary method of disposing of waste was to dump it at sea.
PHOTO: KADIR VAN LOHUIZEN FOR NOOR IMAGES
People wait to sort through waste for recyclable and saleable material, as a garbage truck arrives at the Olusosun landfill in Lagos, Nigeria, on Jan 21, 2017.
PHOTO: KADIR VAN LOHUIZEN FOR NOOR IMAGES