美国国家公共电台 NPR An Island Crusader Takes On The Big Brands Behind Plastic Waste

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

A tide of plastic waste is contaminating the oceans. And in a congressional hearing, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse named major culprits.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE: Over 50 percent of the plastic waste in the oceans comes from just five countries - China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

INSKEEP: NPR science correspondent Christopher Joyce went to one of those countries, the Philippines, to see how bad it is.

CHRISTOPHER JOYCE, BYLINE²: Manila - it sprawls³ along the coast of Manila Bay. Shantytowns sit in the shadow of new high-rises and mega shopping malls. People here have more money than they used to, so they're buying more stuff, from fancy soaps to imported coffee and fast food, all of which is wrapped in plastic packaging. And a lot of that plastic ends up in the bay. There's an island in the bay that's kind of like a doormat for that floating plastic. I went to take a look. It's not far from shore.

So we're on a bangka, which is a Filipino boat, a wooden boat about 20 feet long, 3 feet wide.

I could see lots of mangrove⁴ trees. The island could be a place for a resort, except that what looks like Spanish moss⁵ hanging from the branches isn't. It's plastic bags.

On the way out there, you look along the shore and it's just one long line of plastic debris⁶.

To get ashore⁷, we walk on a little catwalk made of bamboo and held together with a plastic tie. Underneath⁸ it, it's plastic, more plastic, more plastic. Hello.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)

JOYCE: Hey, pup.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)

JOYCE: The variety of stuff lying around is amazing - shoes, bottles, syringes, even motorcycle helmets. It's impossible to tell exactly where all this stuff comes from, but clearly, a lot of it comes from the neighborhoods surrounding Manila Bay. Some of those neighborhoods are trying to stop the flow of plastic into the bay. I visit to Hulong Duhat.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Hi, hello. Good morning, (unintelligible).

JOYCE: The local government is now requiring residents to actually pick through their trash and segregate⁹ out the plastic so the community can deal with it.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Unintelligible) Silver.

JOYCE: A woman pushes her trash cart through a tiny series of alleys¹⁰ and along with her is a monitor from the neighborhood government.

DAHLIA SEQUITA: My name is Dahlia.

JOYCE: Dahlia Sequita speaks through a translator.

UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: So the policy is that no segregation¹¹, no collection. So collection is free, but the household need to segregate their waste.

JOYCE: Food waste goes in one bag, metals, paper, glass in another and two bags for plastic, recyclable and non-recyclable. If residents don't comply with all this, they pay a fine.

SEQUITA: First offense¹² - 500 pesos. Second offense - 1,000. And third, going to jail.

JOYCE: Even jail for not separating plastic from your trash. There are hundreds of official neighborhoods in this huge city. Hulong Duhat is one of just 16 that now require residents to segregate plastic from their garbage.

JOYCE: Is it enough? I ask the town's secretary, Nenita Labiano.

Do you think it's going to work? I mean, it's like a tsunami¹³ of plastic.

NENITA LABIANO: (Through interpreter) Well, sometimes I get mad. As a community, we do our part to clean up the waste and educate people about the environment. And in the beginning, people cooperate, but then they go back to their old ways. And it makes me sad.

JOYCE: But even when people do do their best, where does that plastic go? That's where it gets complicated. Some plastic, like bottles, gets recycled. But then there are the sachets, plastic packets that contain a single portion of soap or coffee or shampoo. That's how corporations like Unilever and Nestle market consumer goods in Asia, and most of these sachets cannot be recycled. That rankles¹⁴ Froilan Grate. He's with an environmental group, Mother Earth Foundation, which has sponsored the neighborhood cleanups.

FROILAN GRATE: The problem is that, for most of these companies, they feel their responsibility to their product ends the moment they sell it.

JOYCE: He says there's a reason used sachets end up in the ocean. In the Philippines, independent waste workers collect plastic and sell it to recyclers. But if it can't be recycled, like those sachets, it has no value.

GRATE: Talk to a waste worker. Can you actually earn from this by collecting it?

JOYCE: So they don't collect it. Grate has spent 17 years looking for ways to get rid of plastic waste. He now realizes that Filipinos can't dig out of this alone. Most packaging comes from just a few big companies. He says it's time they take more responsibility.

GRATE: You have companies dumping all of this new product and packaging that is beyond our capacity to manage. You earn from this, you know? And you expect all of us to then magically just solve it for you.

JOYCE: You can't just magically get rid of something that is permanent, that doesn't degrade. It just keeps piling up. Remember that island I visited? Walking toward the beach, plastic underfoot, I stopped to look at a huge pile of burlap bags stuffed with plastic waste. A team of workers collected that waste, one day's work, and yet they barely make a dent¹.

It's relentless¹⁵. And it buries itself in the sand. It becomes permanent. You kick the sand aside, and there is a plastic tile. There's four or five straws underneath the sand. There's half of a plastic bag. And then mixed in with coconuts¹⁶ and mangrove seeds, you know, it's just - it give you the feeling that you can't ever catch up.

That's why many people throughout Southeast Asia are now saying enough. Cleaning up isn't going to fix this. They want to take the fight to the corporations that create the plastic in the first place. Christopher Joyce, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAPA'S "CETACEAN WAY")

1 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

2 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。

3 sprawls   

n.（城市）杂乱无序拓展的地区( sprawl的名词复数 )；随意扩展；蔓延物v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的第三人称单数 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• The city sprawls out to the west, north and south. 该市向西、北、南方不规则地扩张[延伸]。 来自互联网
• Explanation: Our magnificent Milky Way Galaxy sprawls across this ambitious all-sky panorama. 说明：我们宏伟的银河系蜿蜒穿过这幅高企图心之全天影像。 来自互联网

4 mangrove   

n.(植物)红树，红树林

参考例句：

• It is the world's largest tidal mangrove forest.它是世界上最大的红树林沼泽地。
• Many consider this the most beautiful mangrove forest in all Thailand.许多人认为这里是全泰国最美丽的红树林了。

5 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

6 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

7 ashore   

adv.在(向)岸上，上岸

参考例句：

• The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前，孩子们就上岸了。
• He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。

8 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

9 segregate   

adj.分离的，被隔离的；vt.使分离，使隔离

参考例句：

• We have to segregate for a few day.我们得分离一段日子。
• Some societies still segregate men and women.有的社会仍然将男女隔离。

10 alleys   

胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径

参考例句：

• I followed him through a maze of narrow alleys. 我紧随他穿过一条条迂迴曲折的窄巷。
• The children lead me through the maze of alleys to the edge of the city. 孩子们领我穿过迷宫一般的街巷，来到城边。

11 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

12 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

13 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

14 rankles   

v.（使）痛苦不已，（使）怨恨不已( rankle的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The noise that trunks and ambulances made in the street rankles me every day. 每天大街上卡车和救护车的噪音令我恼怒不已。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Perhaps that is why the tardiness of my in-laws rankles me so. 大概就是因为这个缘故，每次我的亲戚迟到，总惹得我火冒三丈。 来自辞典例句

15 relentless   

adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的

参考例句：

• The traffic noise is relentless.交通车辆的噪音一刻也不停止。
• Their training has to be relentless.他们的训练必须是无情的。

16 coconuts   

n.椰子( coconut的名词复数 )；椰肉，椰果

参考例句：

• We found a bountiful supply of coconuts on the island. 我们发现岛上有充足的椰子供应。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Coconuts provide "meat", drink, oil, soap and fiber for fishing line. 椰子提供“肉类”，饮料、油脂、肥皂和做钓（鱼）丝的纤维。 来自百科语句