Photos: The Beauty Of Massive Waste

Sometimes it's hard to picture the scale of massive waste and pollution we produce. We are told huge islands of plastic are popping up in the oceans, but they are too far away for us to feel responsible for them. Also the piles of rubbish we sometimes see on the news are so abstract, we can distinguish so few items, that it's also very easy for us to detach from it.

However, bicycles are perfectly recognizable. Plus, they are something people with environmental consciousness really identify with. That's why this photo gallery is particularly painful to watch.

Painful in a very aesthetic way, one must confess.

The Guardian has put together a series of pictures from different news agencies and platforms showing how mesmerising and beautiful bicycle graveyards can be.

For us in the West, bicycles remain eco-friendly objects. We ride them and avoid driving polluting, dirty cars, and we can of feel proud of it. But in other parts of the world bicycles are simply another transportation option which, used on a massive scale, can also be harmful for the environment.

Most of the pictures show abandoned bicycles from bike-sharing services, a fact that should also make us reflect.

The concept of sharing companies seems great to put in practice the "reduce, reuse, recycle" principle. However, private sharing services can develop side effects, as we've seen with Airbnb.

In this case in particular, the rise of bike-sharing offer in hugely populated areas, like many Asian cities, means the promotion of an enormous number of disposable bicycles. China, as the article explains, has been flooded for the past year with millions of dockless share bikes. That means users can drop them off, literally, anywhere they want. Some even claim there are already too many "and not enough demand".

This is just another example of today's hyperconsumption society, which we need urgently to rethink before it's too late.