行动十一月，对一次性塑料制品说不！ Saying No to single-use plastics in NOvember

This November I’m saying no to single-use plastics.

今年十一月，我要对一次性塑料制品说不。

The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office has pledged to cut allsingle-use plastics in its offices globally by 2020, quoting the #NOvember and#BeyondPlastic hash tags to raise awareness of the dangers such waste poses toour environment and our health.

英国外交部宣布，到2020年，外交部所有下属机构将停止采购一次性塑料制品，并在社交媒体上推广#行动十一月#话题拒绝塑料制品，让公众意识到这些废弃物会对我们的环境和健康构成威胁。

The European Union is moving to ban single-use plastics entirely by2021, and the UK could achieve the same as early as next year.

欧盟会议正推动禁塑令，到2021年完全禁止一次性塑料制品，英国最早可能在明年实现这一目标。

Single-use plastics are everyday items – such as straws, bottles,bags, cutlery and cups – that we use just once then throw away, never thinkingabout them again. The thing is, they can take centuries to break down.

日常生活中处处可见一次性塑料制品，比如吸管、塑料瓶、塑料袋、餐具和塑料杯等，但是我们用完一次后就顺手扔掉，置之不理。关键是，这些塑料制品需要花几个世纪才能降解。

These types of plastics get smaller as they decay, finding their wayinto our water systems and food chains. Even the small microbeads in our facewash ends up somewhere once we’ve rinsed it away. The UN has forecast therewill be more plastic in the world’s oceans than fish by 2050.Part of the BeyondPlastic initiative is to raise awareness of how we can reduce our overall useof such wasteful items, which, with a little bit of planning, could be cut outof daily life altogether. That means that we can help stamp out a major sourceof harmful global waste – our own daily refuse.

这些塑料分解成塑料微粒进入水循环系统和生物链。即便是我们洗脸时将洗面奶冲洗干净后，有些微珠仍会残留在脸上。联合国预言，到2050年地球海洋里的塑料比鱼类还多。发起“拒绝塑料制品”计划的部分原因是为提高人们减少浪费的意识，少使用塑料制品。只要制定一点计划，我们的日常生活可以完全摆脱一次性塑料制品。这意味着我们可以扑灭全球浪费之火的主要有害苗头——每个人的日常垃圾。

Instead of buying multiple, single-use plastic water bottles, why notfill up a flask at home and take it with you. According to Forbes: “91 percent of all plastic (globally) is not recycled. On top of that, it is estimated thatover half a trillion plastic bottles will be sold in 2020.” That’s a lot ofplastic in landfills and oceans that never really needed to be used in thefirst place.

与其多次购买用一次性塑料瓶装饮用水，为什么不在家里装满一瓶子水随身携带呢？根据《福布斯》杂志报道，（全球）91%的塑料都没有被回收，而且预计到2020年出售的塑料瓶多达5000亿个。大量塑料被排到垃圾填埋场和海洋里，大量塑料被排到垃圾填埋场和海洋里，然而这些塑料一开始根本就不该用。

Say no to plastic straws at cafes and bars. A video of a sea turtlehaving a plastic straw pulled painfully from its nostril a few years agosparked online outrage, spurring ongoing international campaigns to rid theworld of plastic straws. Paper and metal alternatives are now becoming widelyavailable. Some global names are catching onto the trend, as well as the greatPR opportunities. Starbucks, for one, has vowed to phase out plastic straws inits stores by 2020. Hopefully more brands will follow their lead.

在咖啡吧和酒吧里时，对塑料吸管说不！几年前，有个视频里显示了人们从一只海龟的鼻子里拔出一根塑料吸管，海龟痛苦万分，这个视频一经播出就在网上引发众怒，持续不断掀起反塑料吸管的国际运动。如今纸质吸管和金属吸管逐渐普及。一些全球知名企业正在追赶这一浪潮，同时也抓住巨大的公关机会。比如星巴克宣称到2020年将逐步淘汰所有门店的塑料吸管。希望在星巴克的带头作用下，会有更多企业追随它的步伐。

Coffee cups may seem recyclable, but in actual fact they containchemicals to ensure they are water-resistant, which means they need to undergovery specific processes, which most recycled facilities cannot offer.

咖啡杯看似可回收，实际上这些杯子含有一些化学物质确保杯子的耐渗水性。这意味着制作咖啡杯需要经过特别的加工过程，而绝大多数回收设施无法提供这样的技术。

Try making more coffee at home and take it on the go with a flask. Youcan top this up through the day as you need that next caffeine hit. Some chainseven offer discounts on the price of your beverage when you bring in your ownmug – Chinese Starbucks stores (again leading the pack) offer 3 yuan (44 cents)off.

试着在家里多煮点咖啡，装进杯子里随身携带。当天如果再喝另一瓶，可以再将杯子装满。在一些连锁店，如果你自带杯子，还可以给你买的饮料打折——中国的星巴克（又一次起带头作用）会便宜3元（44美分）。

Plastic bags and cutlery might seem easy items to cut out of dailylife, as there are obvious alternatives. But in China, with the proliferationof cheap and convenient delivery options for nearly all consumer goods, how canwe help to keep waste to a minimum?

塑料袋和塑料餐具更容易从我们的日常生活中剔除，因为有其他材质的袋子和餐具可以代替。但是在中国，几乎所有消费商品的送货方式都廉价快捷，随着这种方式的普及，我们如何才能将浪费程度降至最低呢？

Not using such services is themost simple, but (let’s face it) unlikely option. But delivery services arestepping up to cut the waste.

最简单的解决方法就是不选择这类配送服务，然而我们得面对现实，这是不大可能实现的方法。但是配送服务确实正在加快实现减少浪费。

Making plastic cutlery optional on their food delivery apps, workingtoward using fully recyclable packaging throughout their logistics processes,and backing initiatives to promote recycling habits among the public, thenation’s leading delivery firms, including JD and Alibaba, are racing to outdoeach other in the packaging recycling arena.

在外卖应用程序上设定一个塑料餐具选择项；在整个物流过程中使用完全可回收的包装材料；支持采取措施提升公众可回收垃圾意识，中国领先的快递公司，比如东京和阿里巴巴，正在包装回收领域竞相赶超。

But a lot more needs to be done if we are to stop the flow ofplastics into our oceans, and these simple daily changes can help make all thedifference.

要实现阻止塑料流入大海这一目标，我们还有很长的路要走，但这些小小的日常改变或可扭转乾坤。