Junk Cemetery.

We’re producing new homes, vehicles, gadgets, gizmos and other designs faster than we can get rid of the old ones. Tires, airplanes, bicycles and cell phones don’t just magically disappear once they outlive their usefulness. Sometimes they’re stripped down and recycled, and sometimes they’re just left to sit and rot for decades on end. Much like abandoned buildings and cities, these places can haunt the collective memory. Here’s a look at the afterlife of everyday objects, piled into staggering mounds that resemble nothing more than cemeteries for stuff.

When U.S. military airplanes need to be repaired or are just too old to fly, many of them end up in the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center, or AMARC, in Tucson, Arizona. Some of these planes are restored to operational status while others are broken down for parts.

The ‘Ship Cemetery’ of Nouadhibou Bay in Mauritania contains more than 300 wrecked ships that linger throughout the harbor. Mauritanian harbor officers reportedly took money in exchange for allowing ship owners to abandon their property. Nouadhibou is one of the world’s poorest cities, and people actually live in many of the ships that line the beaches.

Tires are one of the most copious waste materials on earth. In the USA alone, about 300 million tires are scrapped every year. They tend to be dumped in mountainous piles that collect water and serve as mosquito breeding grounds. Some of them are recycled – through a burning process that creates huge amounts of toxic air pollution, oil and heavy metals – and others just waste away in landfills.

Electronic waste is the fastest growing part of our municipal waste stream. We have a rather un-earth-friendly habit of replacing electronics like cell phones, computers and televisions before we really need to, sending millions of these chemical-laden items to landfills and so-called ‘recycling centers’ where they really end up getting dumped in countries like China.

Cell phones have a rather abysmal recycling rate, with only about 1% ending up at recycling facilities like this one where they are processed to recover metals that are then used to make more electronics. Of the remaining 99% of discarded cell phones, some are reused or refurbished, but most end up in landfills.

Consumers are being warned to beware free electronic waste collection events that call themselves “environmentally responsible”. While you might think your old TV is going to be disassembled and recycled into new electronics, more often than not, the electronics gathered at these events are simply exported and dumped. It’s especially important to ensure that televisions don’t end up in landfills or dumping grounds, because they contain lead and mercury.

So, what did they do with all the helicopters, tanks, cars, trucks and construction equipment that was contaminated after being used in the cleanup of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster? Nothing, as it turns out. They’re all sitting in a field surrounded by razor wire about 15 miles from the accident site. They were only meant to sit for a few months until they were safe to use again, but the wind blew more contamination onto them. Now, you’re supposed to wear a decontamination suit to even get near them.