China trash ban is a global recycling wake up call
中国垃圾禁令是一个全球性的回收警钟
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.
中国的垃圾进口禁令让全球回收业头疼不已。另一方面:世界最终被迫重新思考其浪费的方式。
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.
北京去年禁止进口24种固体废物，包括塑料和未分类的纸张。周五，它将禁令扩大到数十种可回收材料，包括废钢、二手汽车零部件和旧船。
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.
这一禁令对某些地方造成了可怕的后果。澳大利亚的一个小镇已经将可回收垃圾送往垃圾填埋场，因为它已经不能再回收垃圾了。
In the UK, hoards of low-grade plastic have been hanging around in storage, eventually heading for incineration.
在英国，低级别塑料垃圾一直在储存，最终走向焚化。
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.
美国废料回收行业协会警告称，该禁令正在扰乱全球供应链，并可能导致制造商使用新材料，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.
但专家们表示，这项禁令对英国、美国、澳大利亚、日本等依赖中国购买和处理垃圾的国家来说是一个巨大的警钟。
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.
美国废料回收行业协会表示，美国在2017年向中国出口了31%的废旧商品。在英国，几乎所有的回收塑料都被送到中国和香港进行加工。
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.
随着中国关闭收购外国垃圾的大门，包括英国在内的几个国家开始讨论对一些塑料物品征税，以减少人们使用的材料。
Others, like Australia, have invested tens of millions of dollars to help local councils with the waste crisis.
其他国家，如澳大利亚，已经投入了数千万美元来帮助地方议会应对废物危机。
Simon Ellin, the chief executive of the Recycling Association in the United Kingdom, said the ban is prompting more investment into recycling technologies.
英国回收协会首席执行官西蒙·埃林(SimonEllin)表示，这项禁令正促使人们对回收技术进行更多投资。
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.
这是因为中国和包括欧洲国家在内的其他国家仍将购买高质量的废旧材料，这些材料可以被回收到新产品中。只是现在中国不想要低品位、高污染的东西。
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.
其他国家，包括印度、印度尼西亚、越南、德国和荷兰，已经出手购买英国的一些垃圾，尽管价格较低——但并不是全部。
"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.
他说:“一些低品位的材料，尤其是塑料，在英国的路边收集，事实证明很难搬动，因为没有市场来搬动所有的这些材料。”他补充说，这些材料目前被困在储存设施中，有些可能会被烧掉，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，了解中国将不再运回劣质的回收材料，而中国是英国最大的买家，这意味着英国的回收业必须开始改变。其他的人会效仿。
"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.
他说:“在未来，其他国家将不可避免地效仿中国，考虑引进类似的质量标准，因此我们的材料质量必须更好。”
"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)过程的速度使我们能够生产出质量更好的材料。公司正在采用更高的标准和更严格的流程。还有更多的技术投资。”他补充说。
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.
在埃林看来，禁令是一件好事，它最终将迫使整个供应链从最初的产品设计，到当地的垃圾收集部门，再到那些分类回收垃圾的公司。
中英双语呈现，还可以加强英语学习哦！
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