The U.S. generates more total e-waste per year – 9.4 million tons – than any other country. Despite landfill bans and e-waste collection programs across the country, some 40% of heavy metals in U.S. landfills are estimated to come from discarded electronics. When old electronics end up in landfills, the toxic metals and flame retardants they contain can cause environmental problems. In an effort to avoid these problems, conscientious consumers take their e-waste to recycling centers. Unbeknownst to them, however, about 80% of that material very quickly finds its way onto a container ship going to a country like China, Nigeria, India, Vietnam or Pakistan, where workers remove the metals. Many of these countries do not have regulations in place to protect workers, who often work without protective equipment and breathe in high levels of toxic chemicals. Follow the sordid trail of toxic e-waste in thisexposé by 60 Minutes and learn about e-waste recycling options in thise-waste guide.

The way we currently design, produce, use, and dispose of most of our products, including electronics, is through a linear “cradle to grave” process. In this process, we put unwanted products into the trash once they no longer satisfy our needs. Annie Leonard, creator of the “Story of Stuff,” refers to this process as the “Take, Make, Waste” system. Learn more about this unsustainable approach to consumption in theStory of Stuff documentary. How can designers contribute to changing this broken system? In thisTED talk, architect and designer William McDonough sets out the principles of cradle-to-cradle design, a thoughtful approach to design that inspires hope for the future.

According to the U.S. EPA, Americans generated about 254 million tons of trash in 2013, and recycled and composted about 87 million tons of it, equivalent to a 34.3% recycling rate. This equates to individual waste generation of 4.40 pounds per person per day, of which we recycled and composted 1.51 pounds. Paper and cardboard have the highest recycling rate — over 63% of the amount generated. Plastics have the lowest recovery rate with only 9% of newly-generated plastics being recovered. That means nearly 30 million tons of plastics are being discarded, often as litter. Learn about the recycling process for various materials in thiseducational video.

In the words of the artist: “Exploring around our country’s shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view like eroded layers in the Grand Canyon, I find evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress. I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity. The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits. As an American consumer myself, I am in no position to finger wag; but I do know that when we reflect on a difficult question in the absence of an answer, our attention can turn inward, and in that space may exist the possibility of some evolution of thought or action. So my hope is that these photographs can serve as portals to a kind of cultural self-inquiry. It may not be the most comfortable terrain, but I have heard it said that in risking self-awareness, at least we know that we are awake.”

Learn more about Chris Jordan, including the inspiration behind his Midway project and his ongoing Running the Numbers series, in thisTED talk. Jordan returned to the Midway Islands to create a powerful documentary film, which can be viewed at the Albatross film website. Chris Jordan is one of several activists who have been inspired by the tragic plight of albatross fledglings on the Midway Islands. In thisTED talk by Beth Terry, see how an image of a baby albatross carcass on Midway Island led Beth Terry on a crusade to eliminate plastics from her life. The image, taken two years before Chris Jordan began his Midway series, inspired Beth Terry to become an agent of change as an author and advocate for plastic-free living.

In many places, ruminating animals go through solid waste piles to forage for food and risk ingesting plastic bags. How should this problem be addressed? In thisengaging TED talk, designer Leyla Acaroglu describes the complexity of many environmental problems and the need to design products and solutions that are based on a deep understanding of consumer behavior.

Part of Chris Jordan’s “Running the Numbers” series, this image depicts 260,000 car keys, equal to the number of gallons of gasoline burned in motor vehicles in the United States every minute (as of 2011). The internal combustion engines that power most cars have a substantial carbon footprint, but the growth of electric vehicles offers bright hope for the future. Many experts believe that improvements in battery technology will lead to tremendous growth in electric vehicles. Learn more about emerging battery technologies and what it will take for those technologies tomove beyond the hype stage of development. How quickly will consumers transition to electric vehicles and what will be the implications for oil? This short video from Bloomberg News forecasts that it will happen a lot sooner than we think and trigger another oil glut.

“Whale” is constructed from images of 50,000 plastic bags, equal to the estimated number of pieces of floating plastic in every square mile in the world’s oceans. Chris Jordan explains his intention in transforming data into art: “Each of us attempts to build this new kind of worldview. . . of the interconnection of things: the environmental footprints 1,000 miles away of the things that we buy; the social consequences 10,000 miles away of the daily decisions that we make as consumers. As we try to build this view, and try to educate ourselves about the enormity of our culture, the information that we have to work with is these gigantic numbers: numbers in the millions, in the hundreds of millions, in the billions and now in the trillions. . . . these are numbers that our brain just doesn’t have the ability to comprehend. We can’t make meaning out of these enormous statistics. And so that’s what I’m trying to do with my work, is to take these numbers, these statistics from the raw language of data, and to translate them into a more universal visual language, that can be felt. Because my belief is, if we can feel these issues, if we can feel these things more deeply, then they’ll matter to us more than they do now. And if we can find that, then we’ll be able to find, within each one of us, what it is that we need to find to face the big question, which is: how do we change?”

“Unsinkable” depicts 67,000 mushroom clouds, equal to the number of metric tons of ultra-radioactive uranium/plutonium waste being stored in temporary pools at the 104 nuclear power plants across the United States. In the words of the artist, “These waste pools must be cooled with hundreds of thousands of gallons of constantly circulating water, and many plants have inadequate or nonexistent backup cooling systems in case of power loss. In the U.S. and around the world, the waste pools are under-protected, over-filled, and vulnerable to earthquakes, storms, malfeasance, and human error. In 1997 the Brookhaven National Laboratory estimated that a calamity at just one of these waste pools in the U.S. could cause 138,000 American deaths (more than the number of Japanese who died in the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima), and contaminate 2,000 square miles of our land. Currently, the waste pool in Reactor Unit 4 at Japan’s Fukushima-Daiichi plant is at risk for collapse. The building is unstable, and the cracked and leaking pool contains 262 tons of ultra-radioactive uranium/plutonium waste. For months, Fukushima has been experiencing numerous earthquakes from magnitude 4.1 to 6.2, sometimes several per day. If a magnitude 7 earthquake were to occur, causing the Unit 4 waste pool to rupture and drain, the resulting meltdown and fires could release ten times more airborne radioactive material than was released by the Chernobyl disaster. At that point humans could no longer enter or operate the facility, potentially leading to a chain reaction of meltdown events at Fukushima’s five other units, releasing 85 times as much radiation as the Chernobyl disaster.” Learn more about nuclear waste storage in thisshort video.

Chris Jordan’s work depicts the troubling scale and destructive impact of mass consumption, translating raw data into tangible images of environmental degradation. If you are inspired by his work, you can take action in your own life. Select one or more pledges listed below and spread the word. You can also learn more by visiting our Pledge Center. Let’s #EndOvershoot and save our #OneEarth.