万花筒 2008-12-18&12-19 吸走你的垃圾

Traditional rubbish collection. It’s dirty,smelly, labor-intensive, and rubbish can pile up in basements or wooden bins². This new system does away with all that and with lots of expensive bin¹ lorries.

 

"Nobody sees anything happening, there's no bins, there's no trucks on street, there's no curbs³ like boxes, there is no kids on the bikes trying to fight with dust cars going up on the street. It's safe, it's clean,and it's healthy for everybody."

 

This is how it works: you sort your rubbish into special containers in your kitchen,then take the bags to one of these.They drop down into the building's basement.Twice a day,a powerful vaccum sucks them away to a collection centre down a single pipe. First,the food waste,then general rubbish,then stuff for recycling, like paper and cans.

 

In the past thirty years, the system's been installed around the world, from Stockholm to Barcelona, Disneyland to Dubai, but never in the UK. One problem : it's expensive. Local councils make big savings⁴ on refuge collection, but they don't pay the cost of installation. The developer here next to  Wembley Stadium,says it makes sense partly because this development is the size of a small town.

 

"We own the entire site, the 85 acres and all the roads.And that's the fundamental that we control the public ground. And we kinda take a benefit of that 'cause our public ground's gonna be great as a consequence of this system."

 

"And this is where it ends up,the central collection centre.That great big green pipe is the outlet⁵ from the underground network and laid in all the roads around here.These great big things are essentially⁶ enormous intensive  vacuum cleaner that will swirl  the rubbish around,the air,goes off to the top.The waste goes down to the bottom where it’s compacted , squashed together and then it (is) shifted to one of these containers where it can be put on to a lorry and taken away."

 

Environmentally,it's claimed the systems are great improvement,the challenge is to make it work economically.And with the property market in slump⁷ thanks to the credit crunch⁸, it may be some time before other developments follow this one's lead.

 

Nikaime , BBC NEWS.
 

1 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

2 bins   

n.大储藏箱( bin的名词复数 )；宽口箱（如面包箱，垃圾箱等）v.扔掉，丢弃( bin的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Garbage from all sources was deposited in bins on trolleys. 来自各方的垃圾是装在手推车上的垃圾箱里的。 来自辞典例句
• Would you be pleased at the prospect of its being on sale in dump bins? 对于它将被陈列在倾销箱中抛售这件事，你能欣然接受吗？ 来自辞典例句

3 curbs   

v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• In executing his functions he is not bound by any legal curbs on his power. 在他履行职务时，他的权力是不受任何法律约束的。 来自辞典例句
• Curbs on air travel were being worked out and would shortly be announced. 限制航空旅行的有关规定正在拟定中，不久即将公布。 来自辞典例句

4 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

5 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。

6 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

7 slump   

n.暴跌，意气消沉，（土地）下沉；vi.猛然掉落，坍塌，大幅度下跌

参考例句：

• She is in a slump in her career.她处在事业的低谷。
• Economists are forecasting a slump.经济学家们预言将发生经济衰退。

8 crunch   

n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声

参考例句：

• If it comes to the crunch they'll support us.关键时刻他们是会支持我们的。
• People who crunch nuts at the movies can be very annoying.看电影时嘎吱作声地嚼干果的人会使人十分讨厌。