第1488期:Plastic problem

How many plastic carrier bags have you got in your house? I seem to have cupboards full of them and it feels like they're taking over my home! The ubiquitous shopping bag is just one example of the million things we use made from this useful material, plastic. But unfortunately, it's not the easiest thing to recycle and this is causing an environmental problem.    

你家里有多少个塑料手提袋？我的橱柜里似乎装满了它们，感觉就像他们正在接管我的家！无处不在的购物袋只是我们使用这种有用材料塑料制成的数百万件物品的一个例子。但不幸的是，这不是最容易回收的东西，这会导致环境问题。

Most of our everyday plastic items end up in landfill, left to rot away for many years. But some of it blows away, blighting the countryside and causing damage to the natural environment and harming wildlife. The problem is most acute in our oceans. Research has found an uninhabited island in the South Pacific is littered with the highest density of plastic waste anywhere in the world. Henderson Island, part of the UK's Pitcairn Islands group, has an estimated 37.7 million pieces of debris on its beaches.

我们的大多数日常塑料物品最终都被填埋，多年后腐烂。但其中一些被吹走，破坏了乡村，对自然环境造成破坏，伤害了野生动物。这个问题在我们的海洋中最为严重。研究发现，南太平洋的一个无人岛散落着世界上密度最高的塑料垃圾。亨德森岛是英国皮特凯恩群岛的一部分，其海滩上估计有 3770 万块碎片。

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, described how remote islands act as a 'sink' for the world's rubbish. They become collecting points for fishing items and everyday things including toothbrushes, cigarette lighters and razors; things that we throw away. Dr Jennifer Lavers from the University of Tasmania says "Almost every island in the world and almost every species in the ocean is now being shown to be impacted one way or another by our waste."

该研究发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上，描述了偏远岛屿如何成为世界垃圾的“接收器”。它们成为钓鱼用品和日常用品的收集点，包括牙刷、打火机和剃须刀；我们扔掉的东西。塔斯马尼亚大学的詹妮弗·拉弗斯博士说：“世界上几乎每个岛屿和海洋中的几乎所有物种现在都被我们的废物以一种或另一种方式影响着。”

This highlights the potentially deadly effect of our disposable culture. When we throw something away, it doesn't just disappear, it goes somewhere and because of the durable nature of plastic, it takes a long time to decompose and stays there causing great damage to the ocean's ecology. Some other recent worldwide research estimates that 90% of all seabirds have swallowed plastic. And worse still, this plastic is broken down into tiny particles over a long period by the wind and the waves, then sea creatures at the bottom of the food chain ingest them. These creatures are eaten by the fish that we eventually consume.

这凸显了我们一次性文化的潜在致命影响。当我们扔掉一些东西时，它不仅会消失，还会去到某个地方，而且由于塑料的耐用性，它需要很长时间才能分解并停留在那里，对海洋生态造成巨大破坏。最近的其他一些全球研究估计，所有海鸟中有 90% 吞食了塑料。更糟糕的是，这种塑料在很长一段时间内被风和海浪分解成微小的颗粒，然后食物链底部的海洋生物摄取它们。这些生物被我们最终食用的鱼吃掉。

The solution to this problem would be to use less plastic. Several countries now charge for using plastic carrier bags which reduces the amount used and some products now use natural and recyclable materials but it seems inevitable that plastic will continue to be necessary in many of the gadgets that we demand.

这个问题的解决方案是使用更少的塑料。一些国家现在对使用塑料手提袋收费，这减少了使用量，一些产品现在使用天然和可回收材料，但塑料似乎不可避免地在我们需要的许多小工具中继续成为必需品。

So next time you pick up a carrier bag, or buy a plastic bottle of water, spare a thought for the birds and animals on the remote Henderson Island. What do you do to help the environment?

因此，下次您拿起手提袋或购买塑料瓶水时，不妨想想偏远的亨德森岛上的鸟类和动物。你做什么来帮助环境？

词汇表

plastic carrier bag 塑料购物袋
ubiquitous 感觉无处不在的
blight （使）破坏
wildlife 野生动植物
acute 十分严重的
be littered with 在公共场合到处乱扔垃圾
density 密度
debris 碎片
sink 池子，坑
impacted 受影响的
disposable culture 丢弃文化
durable 持久的
decompose （使）分解
ecology 生态
particle 微粒
ingest 咽下，摄取
recyclable 可回收利用的
spare a thought for somebody 替某人着想