赢得垃圾战争

Winning the Rubbish War
赢得垃圾战争

Have you ever thought about how much rubbish you create every day? Have you ever done recycling (回收利用)? If you have, is it the right way to recycle? Recently, a research group from the University of Manchester has studied the situation in Britain and the result doesn’t look good.
你是否想过自己每天制造多少垃圾？你做过回收吗？如果做过，方式正确吗？最近，曼彻斯特大学的一个研究小组研究了英国的情况，结果并不乐观。

The research shows Britain is one of the most wasteful societies in Europe. In Britain, 435 million tons of rubbish are created this year and the number is rising by 4% every year. Rich families produce more rubbish than poorer ones; people in cities throw more away than those in the country; people living alone waste more than those living together. The rubbish problem is becoming so serious that all the people in Britain need to cut down the rubbish they produce every day.
研究表明，英国是欧洲最浪费的社会之一。今年英国产生了4.35亿吨垃圾，且每年以4%的速度增长。富裕家庭比贫困家庭产生更多垃圾；城市居民比农村居民丢弃更多垃圾；独居者比合住者浪费更多。垃圾问题已严重到所有英国人都需减少每日产生的垃圾量。

What people need to do with the rubbish is another serious problem. However, it never seems serious enough to upset the people who actually create it — that is, everyone in the society.
如何处理垃圾是另一个严峻问题。然而，这似乎从未严重到足以让真正制造垃圾的人——即社会中的每个人——感到不安。

Mark Andrews, a bin (垃圾箱) man from Britain, gets up early every morning to collect rubbish. He thinks people are careless when it comes to rubbish. “People don’t like using rubbish bags,” Andrews said, “Even when they do use them, they often don’t tie them up nicely. Things fall out of the bins everywhere, creating a bad smell.”
马克·安德鲁斯是一位来自英国的垃圾清运工，他每天清晨起床收集垃圾。他认为人们在对待垃圾时很粗心。“人们不喜欢用垃圾袋，”安德鲁斯说，“即使用了，也常常不好好扎紧。东西从垃圾桶里掉得到处都是，散发难闻气味。”

“That’s not the worst thing,” added Dave McCormack, who works together with Andrews, “People put wrong things in recycle bins all the time. When they do that, it’s very likely that none of the rubbish in these bins can be recycled.” Indeed, according to the research, 338,000 tons of rubbish from the recycle bins in Britain are not usable from the past year.
“那还不是最糟的，”与安德鲁斯共事的戴夫·麦科马克补充道，“人们总是把错误的东西放进可回收垃圾桶。一旦这样做，这些桶里的垃圾很可能完全无法回收。”事实上，根据研究，过去一年中英国可回收垃圾桶中有33.8万吨垃圾无法再利用。

Right now the British government is starting all kinds of projects to solve the rubbish problem. However, it’s not enough to just ask the government to take action. What really matters is the action of every person in the society. Everyone needs to think about how much rubbish they produce and how much that is recycled correctly, especially the young people. It is your world in the future, so it really pays for you to start waste management and recycling!
目前，英国政府正在启动各种项目解决垃圾问题。然而，仅靠呼吁政府行动是不够的。真正重要的是社会中每个人的行动。每个人都应思考自己产生多少垃圾、其中有多少被正确回收，尤其是年轻人。未来属于你们，因此开始进行废物管理和回收绝对值得！