美国国家公共电台 NPR Uh-Oh, Germany Is Rapidly Running Out Of Beer Bottles

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Germany, where beer consumption is up - beer consumption is up as temperatures remain unusually high. This is a climate change story in a sense, I suppose. And it's good and bad news for the beer industry. While the breweries² have more than enough beer to go around, they say they are running out of bottles because customers are not returning them quickly enough. Esme Nicholson has more.

(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS CLINKING)

ESME NICHOLSON, BYLINE³: Germans love the environment as much as they love their beer. That's why beer bottles are recycled here. There's a small deposit on each bottle, which customers get back when they return it to a store like this one. There are about 4 billion beer bottles circulating somewhere in Germany. But as Germans drink more and empties pile up, trouble is brewing⁴ for the beer-makers.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CHRISTIAN⁵ SCHUSTER: (Through interpreter) We've had a beer bottle shortage since the middle of May.

NICHOLSON: Christian Schuster of the Greif Brewery⁶ in Bavaria appeals to customers on public television.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SCHUSTER: (Through interpreter) We can't get hold of used ones fast enough, and ordering new ones takes time. I'm having to send out my delivery guys out to look for empty bottles.

NICHOLSON: Niklas Other, editor-in-chief of Inside, a drinks industry magazine, says marketing⁷ departments are to blame for the bottleneck⁸.

NIKLAS OTHER: (Through interpreter) Every city, even every village in Germany has its own brewery. They used to use and share the same bottles, just with different labels. But now many bottles and crates¹⁰ are different, branded to stand out from the rest.

NICHOLSON: The Californian craft beer company Stone Brewing has found a solution. Their Berlin plant is selling its beer in cans. That's a daring choice in Germany. Drinking beer out of a can here is often considered uncouth¹¹.

THOMAS TYRELL: Well, we think it's best for the beer because there's no light ingress. And over time, there's some oxygen oxy permeations through the lid of a bottle, which the can doesn't have.

NICHOLSON: That's Thomas Tyrell, a master brewer¹ for the Californian craft beer-makers. He says the biggest misconception about cans in Germany is that they're environmentally unfriendly. And he points out that their cans also carry a deposit. Recyclable cans only make up 7 percent of the German beer market, which is otherwise dominated by bottles.

(SOUNDBITE OF BOTTLE TOPS HISSING)

NICHOLSON: Like these ones being opened outside a kiosk in Kreuzberg. Thirty-year-old Marcel Hillebrand has just bought his second beer and, like everybody else, is heading to the bridge, beer in hand, to watch the sunset.

MARCEL HILLEBRAND: (Through interpreter) I only drink beer out of a can if there's no other alternative. A bottle is much more civilized¹². A can is ergonomically wrong, and the beer warms up too quickly. But mainly, it just looks cheap, cheap and a bit trashy.

NICHOLSON: When it comes to bottle trash, this part of Berlin has a system in place.

GEORGI VALENTIN: (Singing in foreign language).

NICHOLSON: Twenty-nine-year-old Georgi Valentin sings to himself as he drops discarded bottles into a shopping cart. In broken German, Valentin explains that he's homeless and that collecting bottles in Berlin is better than returning to his native Romania. As he speaks, the smiling kiosk owner hands him a crate⁹ for the empties.

VALENTIN: (Through interpreter) These are my colleagues. They help me - very good guys. I do this every day. I get about 7 euros for a full shopping cart of empty bottles.

NICHOLSON: The 7 cent deposit on each beer bottle may not be motivation enough for some beer drinkers this summer. But for people like Georgi Valentin, it's a lifeline. And thanks to him, there's no shortage of empty bottles at this kiosk.

For NPR News, I'm Esme Nicholson in Berlin.

(SOUNDBITE OF DINOSAUR¹³ JR. SONG, "PLANS")

1 brewer   

n. 啤酒制造者

参考例句：

• Brewer is a very interesting man. 布鲁尔是一个很有趣的人。
• I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. 我决定辞职，做一名酿酒人。

2 breweries   

酿造厂，啤酒厂( brewery的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• In some cases, this is desirable, but most breweries prefer lighter-type beers. 在一些情况下，这是很理想的，但是大多数啤酒厂更倾向于生产酒度较低的啤酒。
• Currently, there are 58 breweries producing Snow Beeracross the country. 目前，全国共有58个雪花啤酒厂。

3 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。

4 brewing   

n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• It was obvious that a big storm was brewing up. 很显然，一场暴风雨正在酝酿中。
• She set about brewing some herb tea. 她动手泡一些药茶。

5 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

6 brewery   

n.啤酒厂

参考例句：

• The brewery had 25 heavy horses delivering beer in London.啤酒厂有25匹高头大马在伦敦城中运送啤酒。
• When business was good,the brewery employed 20 people.在生意好的时候，这家酿造厂曾经雇佣过20人。

7 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

8 bottleneck   

n.瓶颈口，交通易阻的狭口；妨生产流程的一环

参考例句：

• The transportation bottleneck has blocked the movement of the cargo.运输的困难阻塞了货物的流通。
• China's strained railroads already become a bottleneck for the economy.中国紧张的铁路运输已经成为经济增长的瓶颈。

9 crate   

vt.(up)把…装入箱中；n.板条箱，装货箱

参考例句：

• We broke open the crate with a blow from the chopper.我们用斧头一敲就打开了板条箱。
• The workers tightly packed the goods in the crate.工人们把货物严紧地包装在箱子里。

10 crates   

n. 板条箱, 篓子, 旧汽车 vt. 装进纸条箱

参考例句：

• We were using crates as seats. 我们用大木箱作为座位。
• Thousands of crates compacted in a warehouse. 数以千计的板条箱堆放在仓库里。

11 uncouth   

adj.无教养的，粗鲁的

参考例句：

• She may embarrass you with her uncouth behavior.她的粗野行为可能会让你尴尬。
• His nephew is an uncouth young man.他的侄子是一个粗野的年轻人。

12 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为

13 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。