China trash ban is a global recycling wake up call
中國垃圾禁令是一個全球性的回收警鐘
China's trash import ban is giving the global recycling industry an enormous headache. The flip side: the world has finally been forced to rethink its approach to waste.
中國的垃圾進口禁令讓全球回收業頭疼不已。另一方面:世界最終被迫重新思考其浪費的方式。
Beijing has last year banned the imports of 24 varieties of solid waste,, including types of plastic and unsorted paper. On Friday, it extended the ban to dozens more types of recyclable materials, including steel waste, used auto parts and old ships.
北京去年禁止進口24種固體廢物，包括塑料和未分類的紙張。週五，它將禁令擴大到數十種可回收材料，包括廢鋼、二手汽車零部件和舊船。
The ban has terrible consequences for some places. A town in Australia has been sending recyclable waste to a landfill because it can no longer afford to recycle it.
這一禁令對某些地方造成了可怕的後果。澳大利亞的一個小鎮已經將可回收垃圾送往垃圾填埋場，因為它已經不能再回收垃圾了。
In the UK, hoards of low-grade plastic have been hanging around in storage, eventually heading for incineration.
在英國，低級別塑料垃圾一直在儲存，最終走向焚化。
The US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries warned the ban is disrupting global supply chains and may lead manufacturers to use new materials rather than recycled ones.
美國廢料回收行業協會警告稱，該禁令正在擾亂全球供應鏈，並可能導致製造商使用新材料，而非回收材料。
But experts say the ban has been a massive wake-up call for countries like the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Japan and others who relied on China to buy and handle their trash from them.
但專家們表示，這項禁令對英國、美國、澳大利亞、日本等依賴中國購買和處理垃圾的國家來說是一個巨大的警鐘。
The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries said 31% of America's scrap commodity exports was sent to China in 2017. In the UK, almost all of recycled plastic used to be sent to China and Hong Kong for processing.
美國廢料回收行業協會表示，美國在2017年向中國出口了31%的廢舊商品。在英國，幾乎所有的回收塑料都被送到中國和香港進行加工。
With China shutting its door on foreign garbage, several countries, including the UK have started talking about imposing taxes on some plastic items to make people use fewer materials.
隨著中國關閉收購外國垃圾的大門，包括英國在內的幾個國家開始討論對一些塑料物品徵稅，以減少人們使用的材料。
Others, like Australia, have invested tens of millions of dollars to help local councils with the waste crisis.
其他國家，如澳大利亞，已經投入了數千萬美元來幫助地方議會應對廢物危機。
Simon Ellin, the chief executive of the Recycling Association in the United Kingdom, said the ban is prompting more investment into recycling technologies.
英國回收協會首席執行官西蒙·埃林(SimonEllin)表示，這項禁令正促使人們對回收技術進行更多投資。
That's because China and other countries, including European countries, will still buy high-quality scrap material that can be recycled into new items. It's just the low-grade, more polluting stuff China doesn't want.
這是因為中國和包括歐洲國家在內的其他國家仍將購買高質量的廢舊材料，這些材料可以被回收到新產品中。只是現在中國不想要低品位、高汙染的東西。
Other countries, including India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Germany and the Netherlands, have stepped in to buy some of UK's trash, although at lower prices -- and not all of it.
其他國家，包括印度、印度尼西亞、越南、德國和荷蘭，已經出手購買英國的一些垃圾，儘管價格較低——但並不是全部。
"Some low-grade materials, plastic especially, that are collected at curbside in the UK have proved more difficult to move, because there isn't a market to move all of this material," he said, adding these materials are currently stuck in storage facilities, while some might be burned, rather than recycled.
他說:“一些低品位的材料，尤其是塑料，在英國的路邊收集，事實證明很難搬動，因為沒有市場來搬動所有的這些材料。”他補充說，這些材料目前被困在儲存設施中，有些可能會被燒掉，而不是回收。
He said that knowing the country would no longer be able to ship poor-quality recycling materials to China, its biggest buyer, meant the UK recycling industry had to start changing. Others will follow.
他表示，瞭解中國將不再運回劣質的回收材料，而中國是英國最大的買家，這意味著英國的回收業必須開始改變。其他的人會效仿。
"It is inevitable that in the future, other countries will follow China, looking into bringing similar quality standards, so the quality of our material has to be better," he said.
他說:“在未來，其他國家將不可避免地效仿中國，考慮引進類似的質量標準，因此我們的材料質量必須更好。”
"Slowing the [recycling] process down allows us to produce better-quality materials. Companies are adopting higher standards and much more stringent processes. There is more investment in technology," he added.
“放慢(回收)過程的速度使我們能夠生產出質量更好的材料。公司正在採用更高的標準和更嚴格的流程。還有更多的技術投資。”他補充說。
In Ellin's mind, the ban is a good thing, that will eventually force the entire supply chain to change, from the initial design of the product, to local waste collection authorities, to the companies that sort and recycle trash.
在埃林看來，禁令是一件好事，它最終將迫使整個供應鏈從最初的產品設計，到當地的垃圾收集部門，再到那些分類回收垃圾的公司。
中英雙語呈現，還可以加強英語學習哦！
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