美国国家公共电台 NPR An Indian State Bans Plastic Bags, Straws And More. Will It Work?

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

India's largest city has banned plastic bags and packaging. In India, people actually produce only a tenth of the plastic waste that Americans do. The problem is where it ends up, as NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from Mumbai.

(SOUNDBITE OF OCEAN WAVES)

LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE¹: I'm trying to go for a morning jog on my local beach in Mumbai. It's dawn. There's a little bit of a drizzle². But I've got to literally³ clear a path through ankle-deep plastic trash, and the problem is particularly bad in the monsoon⁴ season right now.

(SOUNDBITE OF OCEAN WAVES)

AFROZ SHAH: See, because monsoon, the waves and the tides are on the higher side, lot of water enters into the creek⁵, and these creeks⁶ are full of plastic.

FRAYER: Afroz Shah is a lawyer who got sick of watching floodwaters from Mumbai's creeks flush trash out into the ocean and then up onto his local beach, so he launched a cleanup campaign on Facebook and Twitter. Today, there are about 50 volunteers here.

What are you finding here?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: All plastic - plastic pouches⁷. That's...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: We find shoes laying around.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Packagings - that's what we're finding the most.

FRAYER: As volunteers pick up trash, authorities are going to the source. The Indian state of Maharashtra has banned plastic packaging - bags, Styrofoam, takeout containers, even cutlery. The goal is for all of India to do the same by 2022. Plastic waste is a public health issue, says activist⁸ Vandana Trivedi, a mother of two who lives near one of Asia's biggest garbage dumps here in Mumbai. It's the size of 200 football fields, and it sometimes catches fire.

VANDANA TRIVEDI: It's a very faint - you need to have a nose to pick up polluted air, and I think I've developed it now. It's, like, full of methane⁹ there. When...

FRAYER: Yeah. When plastic burns, it emits all sort of...

TRIVEDI: It's carcinogenic.

FRAYER: India does recycle, but informally. The poorest of the poor sort trash by hand literally on the dump pile. Life expectancy¹⁰ there is 39. Trivedi says this plastic ban is great PR for India, but...

TRIVEDI: Where is the education around the whole thing, right? People are clueless as to what is banned, what is to - not banned.

FRAYER: Nevertheless, stores are scrambling¹¹ to comply or face fines of $70 and up and jail time for repeat offenders¹². Dry cleaner Sunil Srivastava covers freshly pressed shirts in sheer plastic.

SUNIL SRIVASTAVA: Yeah, it's all plastic. But we...

FRAYER: But he now has to remove it before delivering to customers.

(SOUNDBITE OF PAPER CRINKLING)

FRAYER: So you will put this paper on the clothes now.

SRIVASTAVA: Yeah, this paper.

FRAYER: But the paper costs him more, and it falls apart in the rain. A few doors down, Chiman Singh used to sell milk and yogurt in plastic bags.

CHIMAN SINGH: Yeah, milk...

FRAYER: This is the milk in these big metal barrels.

SINGH: Yogurt and milk.

FRAYER: Yogurt and milk. So I have to bring my own container.

SINGH: Yeah.

FRAYER: He says he's lost about half of his customers. Stuffing a cloth bag in your purse is one thing, but who wants to carry around an empty milk bottle? At a fruit and veg stand, Sheru Mann fills her cloth bag and wonders if a country as large and as poor as India can pull this off.

SHERU MANN: There is 1.2 billion people living in India. How can you change the system?

FRAYER: I guess they're trying to start with this ban, right?

MANN: Hope so. Hope so. Hope so.

FRAYER: Lauren Frayer, NPR News, Mumbai.

(SOUNDBITE OF BONOBO SONG, "KERALA")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 drizzle   

v.下毛毛雨；n.毛毛雨，蒙蒙细雨

参考例句：

• The shower tailed off into a drizzle.阵雨越来越小，最后变成了毛毛雨。
• Yesterday the radio forecast drizzle,and today it is indeed raining.昨天预报有小雨，今天果然下起来了。

3 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

4 monsoon   

n.季雨，季风，大雨

参考例句：

• The monsoon rains started early this year.今年季雨降雨开始得早。
• The main climate type in that region is monsoon.那个地区主要以季风气候为主要气候类型。

5 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

6 creeks   

n.小湾( creek的名词复数 )；小港；小河；小溪

参考例句：

• The prospect lies between two creeks. 矿区位于两条溪流之间。 来自辞典例句
• There was the excitement of fishing in country creeks with my grandpa on cloudy days. 有在阴雨天和姥爷一起到乡村河湾钓鱼的喜悦。 来自辞典例句

7 pouches   

n.（放在衣袋里或连在腰带上的）小袋( pouch的名词复数 )；（袋鼠等的）育儿袋；邮袋；（某些动物贮存食物的）颊袋

参考例句：

• Pouches are a peculiarity of marsupials. 腹袋是有袋动物的特色。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Under my eyes the pouches were heavy. 我眼睛下的眼袋很深。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

9 methane   

n.甲烷，沼气

参考例句：

• The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
• Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。

10 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

11 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 offenders   

n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物）

参考例句：

• Long prison sentences can be a very effective deterrent for offenders. 判处长期徒刑可对违法者起到强有力的威慑作用。
• Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. 使从事有意义的劳动是管理少年犯的重要方法。