创意赋予工业垃圾新生命

 　　Repurposed Materials公司不是拆解、回收工业垃圾的有用部分，而是致力于探寻这些工业废弃物的创新用途。比如，废弃集装箱改造成狩猎用的帐篷，废弃电缆变身为楼梯扶手，淘汰的人工草皮成为时尚秀场的地毯等等。相对于回收，它做的是减少资源消耗总量和再利用的文章。

　　Weston Ault is a part-time rancher with a problem. His 40 cows and bulls in Cedar¹ Fort, Utah, are so itchy that they've been pushing over fence posts scratching their backs. So when he heard about a novel solution from Repurposed Materials, a Denver company that specializes in figuring out ways to reuse old industrial equipment, he decided² to take a chance, spending $150 for two old industrial street-sweeper brushes. He will mount them vertically³ in the cattle's pen as backscratchers. The Bronx Zoo has already bought several. "I just picked them up," he says, chuckling⁴. "They're in my truck as we speak."

　　利用业余时间在犹他州雪松堡经营牧场的韦斯顿?奥尔特最近碰到了一个新问题：他的40头奶牛和公牛瘙痒难忍，不断地推翻用来搔背的栅栏柱。所以，当他听说致力于研究重新利用工业旧设备的荷兰公司Repurposed Materials（意为改变用途的材料）有一个新颖的解决方案时，他决定冒险一试，随后花费150美元购买了两个旧的街道清扫车刷。奥尔特打算将它们垂直摆放在牛栏中，用以帮助他的牛解除瘙痒之苦。布朗克斯动物园(The Bronx Zoo)已经买了好几个。“我刚选好，”他咯咯地笑道。“我们说话这工夫，它们已经装上我的卡车了。”

　　He heard about the street sweepers from another rancher, who had seen them in founder⁵ Damon Carson's quirky e-newsletter, sent to some 25,000 readers. The weekly advertises everything from used ski lift cables to -- this week -- "two 800 ton, fiberglass cooling towers being disconnected and removed in the next 30-60 days." Unlike most companies in the reclamation⁶ business, which recycle items by breaking them down into their component⁷ parts, Repurposed Materials is all about finding innovative⁸ new uses for existing products. "We are looking for the castoffs of industry that can get a very different second life," Carson says.

　　他从另一个牧场主那里听说了这种街道清扫车刷。这位牧场主是那家公司创始人达蒙?卡森的电子通讯订户之一。这份周刊拥有大约2.5万名读者，致力于宣传各种古怪的产品，比如使用过的滑雪缆车电缆。本周的产品名录包括“两座800吨重、用玻璃纤维制造的冷却塔。它们即将在未来30到60天内断线拆除。”在回收利用行业，大多数企业往往选择把旧物分解成零部件的回收方式，但Repurposed Materials公司一直致力于探寻现有产品的创新用途。卡森说：“我们热切地寻找各种工业废弃物，希望为它们带来完全不同的第二次生命。”

　　Carson has a background in waste -- he ran a successful garbage business in Vail and Breckenridge and sold it in 2002 -- but had moved on to other entrepreneurial endeavors when a conversation with a painter led him to his next act. "He said, 'If you ever get a chance to buy an advertising⁹ billboard¹⁰, buy it, because [the vinyl covering] makes a great dropcloth for painting.'" Carson bought a bunch and resold them. "I started to wonder if there's enough byproducts and waste in industry to make a whole business out of this," he says.

　　卡森拥有垃圾处理业务的背景。他曾经在韦尔和布雷肯里奇经营过一家成功的垃圾处理企业，但在2002年卖掉了公司，转而寻求其他创业机会。就在这时候，与一位画家的谈话促使他展开了下一个行动。“他说，‘要是你有机会买一个广告牌的话，就买下来吧，因为乙烯塑料罩是非常好的绘画罩布。”卡森买了一堆，随后转售给他们。他说：“于是我开始琢磨，工业界的副产品和废弃物是不是足以支撑起这样一门生意。”

　　And so was born Repurposed Materials, which is not a recycler at all but rather what a friend of Carson's christened "an industrial Cupid." The company's 1.5-acre space in Denver wasn't even fenced in until recently, because people didn't think anything was worth stealing.

　　Repurposed Materials由此诞生。用卡森一位朋友的话说，这并不是一家回收企业，而是“工业界的丘比特。”直到最近，这家公司位于丹佛的1.5英亩厂区甚至没有围栏，因为人们并不认为厂区内有什么值得偷的东西。

　　But they were wrong. Cable from a ski resort in Vail? It's now owned by a dredging contractor¹¹ in Minnesota. (Other cable is made into handrails for residential¹² stairways.) Commercial fishing nets with holes in them? They're now used for batting cages. Burlap sacks from the coffee industry? Crawfish farmers in New Orleans use them for temperature control on the way to the market. Old billboards¹³? The U.S. Army Rangers¹⁴ are saving taxpayers¹⁵ money by using the rigid¹⁶ parts to build a training maze¹⁷.

　　但他们错了。韦尔滑雪场的电缆？它现在归明尼苏达州一家疏浚承包商所有。（其他电缆被用作住宅楼梯的扶手。）破旧的商业渔网？它们现在被用作击球练习的挡网。咖啡业用过的粗麻袋？向市场运送小龙虾的途中，新奥尔良农民使用它们来控制温度。旧广告牌？美国陆军游骑兵使用它的刚性部件来建造迷宫一样的训练设施，从而为纳税人省了不少钱。

　　While it's hard to scale a business like Repurposed Materials, environmental experts see a crying need for more such middlemen. (The company, with about $1 million in revenues, is expanding to Chicago.) "The three Rs are reduce, reuse, and recycle," says English Bird, executive director of the New Mexico Recycling Commission. "But we often forget the reduce, reuse part. It's goodwill¹⁸ on a big scale."

　　虽然Repurposed Materials这类企业很难扩大规模，但环保专家声称，市场亟需更多类似的中间商。（这家公司目前的年收入约为100万美元，眼下正准备向芝加哥扩展。）“所谓3R理念是减少总量(reduce)，再利用( reuse)和回收( recycle)，”新墨西哥州回收委员会(New Mexico Recycling Commission)执行董事英格力士?伯德说。“但我们常常忘了减少和再利用这两个方面。这里面蕴含着莫大的善意。”

　　Not only is the process good for the buyer and the environment; it's often helpful to manufacturers, too, especially if they would otherwise have to pay to remove their junk. Over at Rayner Covering Systems, a South Elgin, Ill.-based manufacturer of plastic pool covers that lets customers send back ripped or unusable covers, a lot behind the building had become what operations manager Judy VanVactor called "the cover graveyard¹⁹." Every so often, she'd pay a hauler to put a truckload of them into a landfill.

　　这个过程不仅对买家和环境有好处，通常还能给制造商帮上忙，特别是，如果它们原本要花钱移除废弃物的话。位于伊利诺伊州南埃尔金市的塑料泳池盖生产商雷纳覆盖系统(Rayner Covering Systems)让客户寄回撕开的或无法使用的盖子，大楼后面的一块地已经变成了公司营运经理朱迪?万瓦科特所称的“盖子墓地”。几乎每隔一段时间，她就得雇一位搬运工把一卡车盖子运往垃圾填埋场。

　　Then she connected with Repurposed Materials, which picked up two semi loads of covers -- probably at least 1,000 of them, she estimates. Today, those covers are being used to provide shade for goats grazing in the hot summer sun, plant nurseries, and, at the Albuquerque Zoo, catch poop under the vulture exhibit. "I just saved two things," VanVactor says, "paying for the labor²⁰ to get it all thrown away and the cost of hauling it off. Plus we're not filling up a landfill." Anyone need 600 square feet of used synthetic²¹ turf? You know where to go.

　　随后，她联系了Repurposed Materials公司。后者挑选的盖子装满了两个半挂车——她估计至少有1,000个盖子。今天，这些盖子正在被用来为吃草的山羊以及苗圃遮挡炎炎夏日，而阿尔伯克基动物园(Albuquerque Zoo)则使用它们来收集秃鹫展的粪便。“我省下了两笔费用，”万瓦科特说。“一是全部扔掉这些盖子需要支付的劳务费，二是把这些盖子拖走的成本。另外，我们也不用占垃圾填埋场的地方了。”有人需要600平方英尺（约合56平方米）的二手合成草皮吗？你知道该上哪儿去找。（财富中文网）

1 cedar   

n.雪松，香柏(木)

参考例句：

• The cedar was about five feet high and very shapely.那棵雪松约有五尺高,风姿优美。
• She struck the snow from the branches of an old cedar with gray lichen.她把长有灰色地衣的老雪松树枝上的雪打了下来。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 vertically   

adv.垂直地

参考例句：

• Line the pages for the graph both horizontally and vertically.在这几页上同时画上横线和竖线，以便制作图表。
• The human brain is divided vertically down the middle into two hemispheres.人脑从中央垂直地分为两半球。

4 chuckling   

轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I could hear him chuckling to himself as he read his book. 他看书时，我能听见他的轻声发笑。
• He couldn't help chuckling aloud. 他忍不住的笑了出来。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子

5 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

6 reclamation   

n.开垦；改造；（废料等的）回收

参考例句：

• We should encourage reclamation and recycling.我们应当鼓励废物的回收和利用。
• The area is needed for a land reclamation project.一个土地开垦项目要在这一地区进行。

7 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

8 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

9 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

10 billboard   

n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌

参考例句：

• He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
• Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。

11 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

12 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

13 billboards   

n.广告牌( billboard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Large billboards have disfigured the scenery. 大型告示板已破坏了景色。 来自辞典例句
• Then, put the logo in magazines and on billboards without telling anyone what it means. 接着我们把这个商标刊在杂志和广告看板上，却不跟任何人透漏它的涵意。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号

14 rangers   

护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员

参考例句：

• Do you know where the Rangers Stadium is? 你知道Rangers体育场在哪吗？ 来自超越目标英语 第3册
• Now I'm a Rangers' fan, so I like to be near the stadium. 现在我是Rangers的爱好者，所以我想离体育场近一点。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

15 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

16 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

17 maze   

n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑

参考例句：

• He found his way through the complex maze of corridors.他穿过了迷宮一样的走廊。
• She was lost in the maze for several hours.一连几小时，她的头脑处于一片糊涂状态。

18 goodwill   

n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉

参考例句：

• His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
• We paid ￡10,000 for the shop,and ￡2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店，两千英镑买下了它的信誉。

19 graveyard   

n.坟场

参考例句：

• All the town was drifting toward the graveyard.全镇的人都象流水似地向那坟场涌过去。
• Living next to a graveyard would give me the creeps.居住在墓地旁边会使我毛骨悚然。

20 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

21 synthetic   

adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品

参考例句：

• We felt the salesman's synthetic friendliness.我们感觉到那位销售员的虚情假意。
• It's a synthetic diamond.这是人造钻石。