趣味英语:给我30天 戒掉塑料袋译文

http://www.sina.com.cn2008年06月04日 16:13   《新东方英语》

毫无疑问，塑料袋让我们的生活变得方便快捷。然而，在享受这种便捷的同时，你是否也在制造着花费一百年都无法从地球上消失白色垃圾呢？

30-Day Plastic Bag Diet

30天塑料袋“节食”计划

◎ from www.bagonaut.com

译 / 珍宝猪

Please do not worry—this is not a fad1) diet to lose weight!Plastic bags have no nutritious value! This diet is about kicking thehabit of excessively2) relying on plastic bags.

Plastic shopping bags are among the most widespread consumer itemson Earth. Their light weight, low cost, and water resistance3) make themso convenient for carrying groceries, clothing, and other dailypurchases that it's hard to imagine life without them. Weighing just afew grams and averaging a few millimeters in thickness, plastic bagsmight seem thoroughly harmless—were it not for the sheer4) numberproduced. Factories around the world churned out5) trillions of6) themevery year.

Compared with paper bags, producing plastic ones uses less energyand water and leaves less air pollution and solid waste. Plastic bagsalso take up less space in a landfill. But many of these bags never makeit to landfills; instead, they go airborne after they arethrown—getting caught in fences, trees, gutters, waterways, even thethroats of birds. To avoid these impacts, the best alternative is toreuse your own durable cloth bags.

It’s okay to have a few plastic bags and to reuse plastic bags asmuch as possible. The goal is to simply use less of them. If you canreduce your usage down to only several plastic bags per year, thenconsider yourself a successful bagonaut7). Go 30 days applying thefollowing steps, which will make it easy for you and in no time you willbe doing it automatically!

Step 1: Round up !

The very first thing you want to do is to collect all of yourplastic bags. You may want to keep a few for special occasions whenplastic is helpful—all plastic bags are not bad—just using too many ofthem can be! Take the rest in for recycling.

Step 2: Choose Reusable Bag!

Purchase some good, reusable bags. A Single person needs about 2-3.A family will need more. You can buy a beginner bag and see if you likeit first. There are a variety of bags available: canvas9), mesh10),nylon, hemp11), etc. What you want is a bag that works for you.

Make sure it is durable and easy to use. Tote12) bags are notrecommended as they are generally too small and the material may not besuitable for heavy items. Avoid back packs, as well. Canvas bags canshrink even if washed in cold water. Bags with small pockets are goodfor receipts or shopping lists.

One good thing about reusable bags is that most have straps and canbe easily thrown over your shoulder. Even when doing a lot of shoppingat a mall you can carry your reusable bags over the shoulder rather thencarrying them in your hands.

Step Three: Mission to Bag

Once you have your bags you will find that most fold neatly andeasily in your closet or a kitchen cabinet. When shopping, give your bagto the cashier first before presenting the items. Everyone saves moneywhen you reuse bags.

Step Four: Practice and Persistence

The key is action. Keep a few bags by the door, so you willremember to take them when you go out. Whether you go to thesupermarket, drugstore, clothes shopping, or a convenience store,challenge yourself to have a reusable bag with you. If you get caughtshopping without a reusable bag then shop old school—use your hands!

Step five: What Else?

Avoid using plastic bags as trash can liners. This is the numberone excuse by people who say they recycle by using them as trash bags.Instead, buy trash bags that are designed to be biodegradable13). Leaveyour smaller trash cans or wastepaper baskets unlined and dump you trashdirectly into your large garbage cans or dumpster. If you have a largehome and several waste paper baskets, then dump all of them into theoutside can periodically14).

Once you have kicked the habit, consider giving a friend a reusablebag as a gift. Take the time to explain why you shop with reusablebags. You may find that when people understand the dangers ofexcessively using plastic, and what it is doing to our environment, theymay go on the 30 day plastic bag diet themselves!

请别担心——这可不是流行的减肥节食！塑料袋可没有营养价值！这里所说的节食是指改掉过度依赖塑料袋的习惯。

塑料购物袋是地球上最常见的消费品之一。它重量轻，成本低，还防水，这些优点使它们便于携带杂货、衣服，以及其他日常商品，很难想象没有它们的生活会是什么样子。如果不是产量巨大，那些重量仅几克，平均厚度仅几毫米的塑料袋怎么看都好像是无害的。每年，全世界的工厂都会生产出成千上万亿个塑料袋。

与纸袋相比，生产塑料袋所消耗的能量和水更少，产生的

空气污染更小，固体垃圾更少，塑料袋在垃圾填埋场所占空间也更小。然而，很多塑料袋根本就没有送到垃圾填埋场，相反，它们在被丢弃后“随风逐流”——结果挂在了篱笆上、树上，或者堵塞下水道和排水渠，甚至被鸟类误食卡在喉咙里。为了避免这些后果，最好的替代方法就是重新开始使用你自己的耐用布袋。

准备几个塑料袋并尽可能地反复使用也是可以的。目的很简单，就是更少地使用它们。如果你可以把每年所用的塑料袋减少到几个，那么就能叫自己“环保袋达人”了。用一个月去实施下列步骤，它们将助你一臂之力，很快你就会习惯成自然！

第1步：围捕“嫌犯”！

你要做的第一件事就是把家里所有的塑料袋都找出来。你可以留下几个以备不时之需——并不是所有的塑料袋都不好——只是过量使用才导致不可收拾！其余的环保回收。

第2步：弃“暗”投“明”！

买几个质量好、可重复使用的袋子。一个人需要大约2~3个。一个家庭需要更多。你可以先买一个试试，看看喜不喜欢。可供选择的袋子有很多：帆布袋、网格袋、尼龙袋、麻纤维袋等等。你需要的是一个适合自己的袋子。

确保它耐用、方便。不推荐手提购物袋，因为它们通常都很小，材质也不适宜携带较重的物品。也不要选用背袋。帆布包即使用冷水洗涤也会缩水。有小口袋的包适于放收据或购物单。

可重复使用的袋子有一个优点：大多数都有带子，可以方便地挎在肩上。即使是在大型购物商场，所购商品很多时，你也可以把袋子挎在肩上，而不必用手提。

第3步：用袋之道

一旦你有了自己的袋子，你会发现它们大多能方便整齐地叠放在你的衣柜或厨柜里。 购物时，先把你的袋子交给收银员，然后再摆出你购买的商品。重复使用袋子可以让每一个人都省下钱来。

第4步：坚持不懈

你的行动是关键。在门口放几个袋子，这样你外出时就会记得要带着它们。不管是去超市、药店、服装店，还是便利店，都带上一只可重复使用的袋子，挑战自己。如果你发现自己忘记带可重复使用的袋子，那么就用最原始的办法——用手拿！

第5步：再接再厉

不要把塑料袋衬在垃圾筒里当垃圾袋，虽然有人说这样也是循环利用，但这其实是人们最常用的借口。去买可生物降解的垃圾袋。不要在你自己的小号垃圾桶或废纸篓里套塑料袋，直接把垃圾扔进大号的垃圾桶或垃圾箱里。如果你家很大，有几个废纸篓，那么定期将其中的垃圾倒入户外垃圾箱中。

当你摆脱了这个习惯，不妨把可重复使用的袋子作为礼物送给朋友。耐心解释为什么要用这种袋子购物。你会发现，当人们了解到过度使用塑料袋的弊端及其对环境造成的危害时，他们会自觉地加入到30天塑料袋“节食”计划中来。

Vocabulary

1.fad [fAd] n. (一时的)狂热；(穿着、行为等方面)一时的风尚

2.excessively [Ik5sesIvlI] adv. 过多地，过分地

3.water-resistance: 防水；resistance [ri5zistEns] n. 抵抗性，抵抗力

4.sheer [FiE] adj. 绝对的；彻底的

5.churn out: 粗制滥造出；churn [tFE:n] v. 剧烈搅动

6.trillions of: 大量，无数；trillion [5triljEn] num. 万亿，兆

7.bagonaut: 环保袋达人；号召摆脱塑料袋、使用环保袋以保护地球环境的人(或行为、现象)：这是一个新兴词汇，它源于EganSanders(伊根?桑德斯)和他的BIGBAG1。EganSanders是一位环保袋倡导者，他连续14年坚持不使用塑料袋。2007年9月，EganSanders把自己装在世界上最大的帆布袋BIGBAG1中整整24个小时，以呼吁人们关注全球变暖和白色污染，此举顿时轰动美国，媒体争先报道，许多人更是在他的带动下加入到使用环保袋的行列中。

8.round up: (对人或物品的) 搜集，集拢

9.canvas [5kAnvEs] n. 帆布

10.mesh [meF] n. 网眼织物；网状物

11.hemp [hemp] n. 麻类植物(纤维)

12.tote [tEut] n. 手提

13.biodegradable [7baiEudi5^reidEbl] adj. 能进行生物降解的

14.periodically [9pIErI`CdIkLlI] adv. 周期性地；定期地