George Steinmetz

On Earth Day, I offer a tale of recycling in two cities, from my new project!Population 10 Billion.

Garbage trucks wait to unload at a landfill built on the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria. The 100-acre dumpsite is the largest in Africa, receiving 10,000 tons of rubbish each day. A shanty town of trash-pickers has been built atop the site by scavengers who eke out a living from recyclable scrap.

A dry ski hill covered in astroturf is the sloped roof of the waste-to-energy plant in Copenhagen, Denmark, which burns trash to generate clean power. The plant played a significant role in Copenhagen’s efforts to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2025. The plant cost $670 million and is expected to burn 400,000 tons of municipal solid waste annually.

My wingman, Alain Arnoux, in 2003 as we flew our paragliders over the salt domes of the Dasht-e Kavir, Iran, which awkwardly happened to be on a military rocket range. We were probably the first foreigners to fly a private aircraft in Iran since the 1979 revolution, and the only ones crazy enough to venture into this geological oddity of the Kavir. I was detained three times on that trip on suspicion of spying, but in reality, I was only trying to reveal the extraordinary geography of the world’s most extreme deserts.

Yesterday, I got a note from an Iranian friend in Tehran, who was put in prison for traveling in Iran’s remote deserts. I don’t know if I was smart or lucky, but I am deeply indebted to an amazing Iranian crew who helped me complete what now seems like a real Mission Impossible. The second photo is a selfie after a high-wind landing in the Kavir. As the saying goes, take-offs are optional, but landings are mandatory!

Solar panels blanket a small mountain in Anhui, China, a part of China’s push to be the world’s leading force in renewable energy. This picture was part of a portfolio for , which just won a 2026 Communication Arts Award for Editorial Photography.

Ship breaking is the largest form of recycling on earth, and is still done the hard way on the coast of Bangladesh. Ships sold for scrap metal are driven onto the mudflats at high tide, then dismantled with blowtorches before multi-ton chunks are winched ashore for cutting into smaller pieces and sent to a local smelter. About half of the ships being broken these days are old LNG tankers like this, which no longer meet international safety and efficiency standards. The regulations for ship breakers were changed last year, requiring hard hats, helmets, cranes, and a large concrete slab to ensure that all toxic materials are disposed of properly. This has driven up costs and put most of the ship breakers out of business, as they can’t afford the US$4-5 million required. This old tannker was purchased before the law passed, and is one of the last ships to be broken the old way.

Sand minig on the Padma River, Bangladesh to meet demand for concrete, bricks, and landfill for the construction industry. While sand mining is officially illegal, it is common across much of Bangladesh, and contributes to river erosion and environmental degradation.

Thousands of homebound passengers waited to depart from Dhaka’s main ferry terminal last week before the start of the Eid al-Fitr holiday. Most people in Dhaka migrated here from small rural towns, and return there for the big holidays. The world’s second-largest city struggles to keep up with urban migration, and river transport remains a slow but viable alternative to overcrowded roads and railcars.

Brick kilns run 24/7 along the Daleshwari River south of Dhaka. Some 25 billion bricks are made by hand here each year from river mud and placed in a zig-zag pattern inside coal-fired kilns. Bangladesh’s population is both stable and rapidly urbanizing, and Dhaka, the world’s second-largest city, is growing by about 4% per year. The kilns produce both the building blocks of this chaotic metropolis and about 40% of the air pollution during the dry winter months.

Thousands gathered to pray in their new clothes today, and celebrate Eid al-Fitr on the historic festival grounds of Dinajpur, Bangladesh. The festival marks the breaking of the fast at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and is a time to give thanks, celebrate with family, and give to the needy. This is the largest Eid gathering in South Asia, but turnout was relatively light, as it rained heavily last night, and the grounds were a little soggy.

Tens of thousands leaped into the Sokoto River in Nigeria last Saturday to fish with hand-held nets on the final day of the Argungu Fishing and Cultural Festival. The quasi-annual tradition began over 80 years ago at this bend in the river, which is has the best fishing in the area, and this was the first day it had been open in six years. The winner caught a 130-lb catfish and won a new car plus a million Naira ($750).

Monday morning at Gayawa public secondary school in Kano, Nigeria. Secondary school students are taught in separate s*x classes, and these tenth graders were waiting for their biology teacher, who was late for class. In Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria, most girls get married before the age of 15, and the birth rate is higher than the national average of 4.5 children per woman. Although there is some instruction on feminine hygiene, there is no s*x education or information given on birth control for cultural reasons, as it might encourage promiscuity.

The Monday morning water taxi from Ganvié, Benin, to the mainland makes stops for breakfast in the town’s floating market. Known as the “Venice of Africa”with a population of some 20,000, Ganvié was built on stilts at the edge of Lake Nokoué to escape the slave trade in the 17th Century by the Tofinu people to escape the slave trade. They have developed a unique form of aquaculture, and now sell their excess catch of fish across the lake in the capital, Cotonou.