passage3alotofrubbish自考本科英美报刊

1、A Lot of RubbishWith dumps filling up fast, America is finally embracing （adopt） a new garbage ethic. 由于垃圾场正在很快被填满，美国终于采用新的垃圾处理方法。By William J. CookAmerica, unhappily, is bullish(like a bull) on garbage. Our production of refuse, now about 160 million tons a year, will rise to 193 million tons by th

2、e end of the century if nothing is done. This growing effluence( production, making) of affluence (wellbeing), 31/2 pounds a day for every American and rising, is a byproduct of our consumer society, whose watchwords (口号) are convenience, ready to use and throw-away. And it has become a major nation

3、al environmental issue, forcing citizens, elected officials and private companies to give serious thought to rubbish. 让人感到失望的是，美国的垃圾数量急剧增加。美国现在每年产生大约1亿6千万吨废物，但是如果不采取适当措施进行控制的话，到本世纪末该数字将会攀升到1亿9千3百万吨。我们一直宣扬所谓的“便捷”“方便”和“一次性”，现在平均每个美国人每天产生3.5 磅并且该数字一直还在增加，富足的生活产生的垃圾，是我们这个消费社会的副产品。这已经成为一个举国关注的焦点问题，迫使市民，政

4、府官员以及私营公司齐心应对垃圾处理问题。The contentious（argumentative, arousing dispute） reality is that the historically cheap and simple solution to trash -dumping it in a landfill just beyond the edge of townis no longer workable, particularly around major cities. 一个不争的现实就是：传统的低廉且简单的垃圾处理方法直接把垃圾倒这位于城市边缘的垃圾掩埋场是行不通了，尤其

5、是在一些大城市周围更是不可能。Old dumps, which now get 80 percent of all garbage, are filling up, and new ones have become virtually (almost) impossible to buildthe result of skyrocketing (increasing very fast) land costs, increasingly stringent(strict) environmental regulations and shrill public opposition to new

6、 landfills in my back-yard. 现在接收全部垃圾总量的80%的那些早期的垃圾掩埋场很快就被填满了，但由于低价飞涨，日益严格的环保规定以及公众强烈反对在“他们的后院建垃圾场”， 要建造新的垃圾场几乎不可能。 Five years from now. forecasts Bruce Weddle, director of the Environmental Protection Agencys municipal solid-waste program, well have only half the number of landfills operating.” 环境保护

7、局负责固体市政固体废物处理项目的负责人 Bruce Weddle 预计，“未来5年后，现在的垃圾掩埋场将只有半数能够继续运营。”With this grim （gloomy, serious） prospect, new methods are required, all variations on the only four ways available to deal with garbage: Bury it, burn it. recycle itor dont make as much in the first place. 在这种严峻的形势下，研究新的垃圾处理方法势在必行。之前，垃

8、圾处理大都源于传统的那四种垃圾处理方法，即掩埋，焚烧，回收或者最初干脆就不制造垃圾。Whats needed, experts say, is a sophisticated combination of all four, called integrated waste management, (in which valuable items are sorted out of the waste stream and turned into new products, and the rest are burned cleanly in a furnace( that also produ

9、ces steam to generate electricity). Only the ash- a fraction of the original volume of trash, is then disposed of in carefully engineered landfills.6 但是专家们说，真正需要的是一种能够将传统的四种垃圾处理方法综合运用的“综合废物处理系统”：运用该系统，能够进行再次利用的物品能够从废物堆中挑选出来，用于生产新的产品。剩下的废物运送到焚化炉中进行彻底焚烧，热能产生的蒸汽将用来发电。最后，体积已经减少为焚烧前一小部分的那些灰烬会被运送到一个精心设计的掩

10、埋场掩埋起来。Rhode Islands program serves as a model for the future. In 1986, the State Legislature passed a comprehensive plan, including mandatory recycling and waste-to-energy plants. designed to cut the volume going into landfills 90 percent by 1994. 罗德岛项目为未来垃圾处理树立了典范。1986年，州立法委员会通过一项综合计划，其中包括强制实行废物回收

11、利用和垃圾发电厂，从而到1994年时，把需要掩埋的垃圾数量减少90%。Already, residents in more than half the state are separating their wastes so recyclable items can be collected; the rest will participate by next fall. Similar to the new curbside recycling programs under way in many U.S. cities, the Rhode Island effort provides e

12、very household with a 12 gallon blue box (made of recycled plastic) for tin and aluminum cans, glass containers and two types of plastic containers, the familiar soft-drink bottles and milk jugs. 超过半数的居民已经开始将垃圾分类放置，便于有用的废物进行回收，估计到明年秋天，全州剩余居民将都会参与到该项目中来。正如在美国很多大城市正在推广的一种路边废品回收计划那样，罗德岛给每个家庭配备了一个用回收塑料制

13、成的12加仑的蓝色箱子，用来装锡罐，铝罐，玻璃罐，以及两种常见的饮料和牛奶塑料瓶。Old newspapers are stacked on top of the blue boxes, which are emptied into special trucks on the same day as regular garbage pickup-All this refuse is hauled(shipped) to Johnston, R. I. , where the nations most automated materials-recovery facility (MRF. pro

14、nounced murf) opened in April. 旧报纸通常是沓放在蓝色塑料箱的上面，每天当垃圾车来收取日常垃圾时，该蓝色塑料箱里的废物也会被专用卡车收走。所有废物都将被运到罗德岛Johnston中心，在那里装有全国自动化程度最高的“自动化物质回收设备” 已经于4月份开始投入使用。Newspapers are segregated（put aside） for sale (mostly to Eastern Europe and Korea), and the rest is dumped onto a MRF conveyor belt for sorting. A huge e

15、lectromagnet picks off tin cans to be shredded(crush). The conveyor belt inclines steeply so that heavy glass bottles roll back down and off the belt to be sorted by color for sale to glass manufacturers.旧报纸被分拣出来出售（主要销往东欧和韩国），剩下的废品被倒在“自动化回收设施”的传送带上进行分拣。先是通过一块电磁板，从而将锡罐吸走并切碎；接着传送带陡然倾斜，一些重的玻璃瓶便从带子上滚下来，

16、经过分色整理后可以出售给玻璃厂。Whats left passes through an electric field, which induces a positive charge in aluminum cans. When the charge is released, the cans literally pop off the belt. The plastic containers are sorted manually. (by hand)剩下的物品经过一个电流场，该电流会使得铝罐带正电，当电流断开后，铝罐会自动从传送带上蹦落。最后塑料瓶需要手工分拣。Power from tr

17、ash. So far, Rhode island is recycling about 200 of the 4 000 tons of waste generated in the state every day. The rate will climb to 1 000 tons a day when a second MRF opens; it is being designed to also handle white office paper, corrugated boxes and more kinds of plastic. Trash that cant be recycl

18、ed, another 2 200 tons a day, will eventually be burned in three waste-to-energy plants. 垃圾发电。目前，罗德岛每天回收200吨废物，该州每天产生的废物是4000吨。如果第二台设备投入运营的话，该数字会升至1000吨，并且第二台设备还能处理白色的办公用纸以及波纹状的纸板盒以及更多种类的塑料瓶。每天产生的另外那些无法回收的2200吨废物，最终将在三个垃圾发电厂焚烧。Each plant, according to Thomas Wright, executive director of Rhode Islan

19、ds Solid Waste Management Corporation, will produce enough electricity for 120 000 homes. All that will be left will be the ash and building-demolition debris, which together will occupy only a tenth the landfill space originally required. 据罗德岛固体废物管理集团董事长Thomas Wright 说“每个垃圾发电厂将会产生足够12万户家庭使用的电量。最后剩下

20、的是灰烬和一些建筑废料，这些只占原来空间的十分之一。Gathering items to be recycled is the easy part. Already, 30 states call for recycling, and 10 require it. Eighteen months ago，for example, Browning-Ferris Industries of Houston3 collected recyclables from 47000 households, today, it serves nearly a million in 104 cities. 把

21、废品收集起来这项工作相对比较容易。美国已经有30个州号召人们进行废品回收再利用，且有10个州明确规定必需进行废品回收。比如，18个月前，休斯顿市布朗宁弗里斯企业对4.7万家庭产生的废品进行回收，如今，这家企业服务遍布104个城市，受众百万人。The public strongly supports recycling programs, as shown by high participation rates （where curbside pickup is available.） Seattle, which started its recycling program in Februar

22、y, 1988, has already cut garbage going to landfills by 25 percent, saving the city $2 million a year in reduced trucking costs and fees. 公众强烈支持废品回收计划，这一点通过人们广泛参与设置在路边的分类垃圾箱进行废品回收就能体现出来。西雅图在1988年12月开始实行废品回收计划，已经把运往垃圾场进行处理的垃圾数量减少了25%，这可以给城市每年节省200万美元的卡车运输费用。Seattle adds a pay as you throw economic inc

23、entive. Items put out for recycling are picked up free. So residents can save by reducing their weekly pickup from two cans to one. If you charge more, people generate less. says Jennifer Bagby, economist for Seattles solid-waste utility4- The Seattle experience, says EPAs Weddle. is a harbinger (fo

24、rerunner)（forecasting example） of what well see around the country. 西雅图还新增了一项“按垃圾数量收费的新制度，（这样的经济刺激因素）如果市民把家里面可以回收再利用的物品分离存放，该垃圾免费收取。所以，很多居民通过参与废品回收，将每周垃圾数量由两罐减少为一罐，自然可以省钱。西雅图固体废品处理公司的经济学家 Jennifer Bagby 说：“如果提高垃圾收费标准，人们自然会少扔垃圾”。环境保护署官员 Weddle 说：“西雅图经验将会在全国进行推广。”Finding markets for all the recyclable

25、 stuff being collected, however, is enormously difficult. So many old newspapers are now being set out at the curb that prices have collapsed. (greatly decreased) 然而， 如何为回收起来的物品找到销路却成为日益困难的事情。现在路边堆放了大量的报纸，等待回收利用，这导致旧报纸的回收价格一路狂跌。Last April, for example, Rhode Island could sell newspapers for $25 a to

26、n; now, the price is $2. And other places, like New York, must actually pay brokers $ 10 a ton to take the papers. 比如，去年4月份，罗德岛每吨旧报纸可以卖25美元，现在只能卖到2美元。而在纽约，市政府还必需每吨花10美元才能把旧报纸清理走。Recycling doesnt pay for itself.10 Wright says. If it was profitable, you wouldnt need the government to get involved. Sta

27、tes like California and Connecticut are helping to create markets by requiring publishers to use recycled newsprint. 莱特说：“废品回收本身并非有利可图，如果本身获利丰厚的话，也无需政府介入了。”类似加利福尼亚州和康涅狄格州，为了解决旧报纸滞销的难题，要求出版商需要使用再生纸进行生产印刷。The plastics industry has been scrambling (hurried) to support recycling, mostly out of fear that

28、 its ubiquitous (existing everywhere) products will otherwise be banned. But recycling has proved economical as well. 塑料工业大都积极支持废品回收计划，大部分原因可能是担心如果不参加该计划，该产业无处不在的产品可能会遭到禁用。但实际上，废品回收本身也是更实惠的一种做法。 Wellman. Inc., of Shrewsbury, N.J. - for instance, buys plastic bottles and turns them into fiber for car

29、peting (35 percent of all polyester carpet is made from recycled soda bottles) filling for parkas and heavy felt used to stabilize railroad roadbeds. 新泽西州什鲁斯伯里的Wellman集团，收购塑料瓶并用来生产地毯纤维，（大约35%的聚酯地毯是由回收的塑料瓶制成的）用来填充皮质大衣或制作沉重的地毡用来加固铁路路基。Wellman Vice President Dennis Sabourin estimates that about 110 mil

30、lion pounds of soda bottles are now recycled annually; he foresees markets for at least 430 million pounds. Wellman 副总裁 Dennis Sabourin 估计现在每年大约回收一亿一千万磅重的可乐瓶；而且他预测市场估计可以回收至少四亿三千万磅。Political will. The EPA is also taking steps to force recycling and raise standards sharply for burning and land filling

31、. In rules proposed in November, air pollutants from incinerators would be cut 90 percent by 1994, and at least 25 percent of the waste stream would have to he recycled. 政治意愿。环境保护署也在采取措施加大废品回收利用力度，并大幅提高垃圾焚烧和掩埋标准。在十一月份通过的议案中，到1994年，垃圾焚化炉排放的大气污染物要减少90%，并且至少25%的废水要进行循环利用。The EPA is also writing rules to require that landfills be lined with clay or plastic (only 15 percent now are ) and that chemical-laden water th