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VOA慢速英语2013 Plastic Recycling

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Plastic Recycling

From VOA Learning English, this is EXPLORATIONS in Special English. I’m Kelly Jean Kelly.

And I’m Christopher Cruise. Today we follow plastic bottles and other plastic objects as they go to one of the largest recycling centers in the United States. And we tell about the effect a tax on plastic bags is having in the nation’s capital.       

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Recycling has become a part of American life. It also is an important part of the waste-processing industry. In fact, many cities and towns in the United States now have recycling programs.

To learn how such a program works, we will go to a recycling center in the eastern state of Maryland.

The recycle bin1 in the home or office is often the last stop for empty containers. But for papers, plastics, cardboards and cans, it is the beginning of a trip thousands of kilometers long. 

Yehenew Gedshew directs a recycling center near Washington, DC.

“As long as people throw their trash, we have a job.” 

His recycling center processes about 35 tons of material an hour. How does it process that much every hour? Yehenew Gedshew says the business is highly-organized.

“First what happens is, dump trucks bring materials to our site. They dump it on the tipping floor. It goes to the first screen where the cardboard and the rest of (the) material is sorted out.”

The rest of the material goes on a belt that carries the glass and plastic to the last screening area. The glass gets crushed and the plastic gets sorted and flattened2.

“This is a very sophisticated machine. And that belt brings it down to the bunker. The plastic goes to the bunker, from the bunker we put it to the baler, it gets baled and gets shipped out.”

Local recycling programs often require people to separate plastics, papers and glass. But Yehenew Gedshew says sorters at his recycling center do that all that work. He says the center ships most of its plastic to a processing center in North Carolina, more than 500 kilometers to the south. At that center, mountains of bottles become piles of plastic. They are ready to be melted and shaped into something new.

From the store to the recycling bin, and from there to just about anywhere you can imagine, plastic bottles spend a lot of time on the road. And so have we. We now go to Fayetteville, North Carolina. The city is home to the Clear Path Recycling center. It is one of the largest plastic recycling centers in the United States. Jay Chilton supervises the center.

“On an average week we receive anywhere from 1 to one and one half million pounds of bottles into the plant.”

In metric terms, that is 454,000 to 680,000 kilograms. The Clear Path Recycling Center receives eight to 10 trucks a day. That means more than 18,000 kilograms of plastic every day. The goods come to the center in large piles or bales, like the ones at the recycling center in Maryland.

“These bales on average are about 900lbs ((400 kg)); and they can range anywhere from 600lbs ((270 kg)) to 1500lbs ((680 kg)) in this configuration3.  This is accumulation of nearly 10-15 weeks of delivery.”

Not far from the Clear Path Recycling is a huge storage area for the plastic objects. They enter the recycling center to begin the process that will change them.

“This is where the whole bottles enter the whole bottle wash. It’s just like your front-end loading washing machine at your house. It’s just a lot longer, and a lot bigger.”

Hot water washes paper labels off the drink bottles and removes dirt. The plastic is broken up into what the plastics recycling industry calls “PET flake4.” Another center will buy the flake to melt and mold into something else. The flake fills trucks and is sometimes stored in silos like farmers use to store grain.

“These silos hold roughly 300 metric tons of PET flake, and the one we’re standing5 on now, we have about 150 metric tons of flake, and there’s three of these.”

Add up the numbers -- almost one kiloton of plastic flake waits to be changed into something new.

Plastic bottles spend their lives on the move. Machines mold and fill them with our favorite drinks. When we are done drinking, machines destroy the bottles and make them into new bottles. Their journey never ends. But our trip has come to an end in Wilson, North Carolina.

In our program, we have described the trip made by plastic bottles from stores to recycling bins6 and then to recycling centers. The bottles are then broken down into small pieces, which are put into bags. Now, we will witness the rebirth of a plastic bottle.  

Mark Rath is a supervisor7 at Peninsula Packaging. At his business, pieces of plastic become products like carry-out trays at food stores and restaurants.  

“This will become a plastic sheet, and eventually a thermoform product.”

Peninsula Packaging melts and flattens8 plastic so it can be shaped and molded. The process is complex.

“We take the clear chips like this, and it goes into an oven, and it cooks for about 3 to 4 hours in that oven.”

The plastic cooks at almost 200 degrees Celsius9. When the melted plastic comes out of the oven, it is made into carry-out trays or other food packaging. The plastic is then wrapped, rolled and taken to what is called a “thermoform station.”

“We unwind the plastic into a very long oven where we heat it again, and then we’ll form it in a forming station. We’ll follow it through and see what happens to it.”

What happens to the recycled plastic involves a vacuum, lots of pressure, and -- believe it or not -- more recycling.

“If you could imagine that you’re cutting cookies out of a piece of dough10 on the counter…you get a round cookie and you have all this dough left over…we put it back through, grind it up into little pieces and put it back through the extrusion11 process.”

Mark Rath says all of the plastics in this packaging center become some kind of container in their next lives.

“That’ll end up being a fresh-cut-salad base. Not sure where it goes, but it’ll end up some place with celery and carrots and tomatoes.”

It has taken several days, but a plastic bottle like the one we bought in Washington, DC has now become a salad tray in North Carolina. 

Many workers, hundreds of kilometers, and tons of plastic: all pieces of a waste industry that seems to waste as little as possible.

Countless12 things affect the health of our environment. What we take from nature may not harm it as much as what we add to it. For years, many people have harmed the environment by throwing away plastic grocery bags. But in Washington, a “bag tax” has changed the behavior of many people, and the way business affects the environment.

The Anacostia River flows through southeast Washington into the better-known Potomac River. The Anacostia is often called the city’s “other river.” Tommy Wells is a member of the Washington, DC city council. He is worried about the health of river. He notes that some people have called the Anacostia, one of the 10 most polluted rivers in the country. 

Mr. Wells says he was tired of seeing so many plastic bags in or near the river.

“I wanted something that got into people’s heads; not their pockets, which is why we came up with a nickel.”

Stores in Washington now require people to pay five cents -- a nickel -- for each disposable plastic bag. The money goes into the “Anacostia River Clean Up Fund.” People who bring their own bag do not pay anything extra.

Has the “bag tax” helped? Bret Bolin is with the Anacostia Watershed13 Society, a group that is working to protect the river.

“In just about 3 and a half months of the bag fee, people were already reporting that they were seeing a lot less bags in the river and at cleanup sites than in past years.”

Councilman Tommy Wells agrees that the bag tax worked.

“There was a 60 percent reduction of the amount of bags that were pulled out of the river.”

The local government estimates that stores gave shoppers almost 300 million bags in 2009. Mr. Bolin says the bag tax caused the number to drop sharply. 

“And they were estimating something like 55 million being distributed in 2010, which is an 80 percent reduction, which is amazing.”

The five cents a bag tax added two million dollars to the River Cleanup fund in its first 10 months. Tommy Wells and Brent Bolin are pleased with the effect of the tax. But when we talked with some store owners and shoppers, we found they were not so happy.

“Ninety percent of people complained, and they don’t want to buy the bag.”

“Customers don’t like it at all.”

“They’ll pay $100 for the booze, but not 5 cents for the bag.”

Other critics say that in difficult economic times, any tax is unfair to poor people and could cost jobs in the plastic business. But many people still support the tax.

“It’s easier.”

“I carry my own bags.”

“I mean… I don’t have to pay for it.”

“I just bring my own since I have them.”

“It’s free!”

“Everybody brings their own bags now.”

But supporters of the tax, like Brent Bolin and Tommy Wells, say reducing the use of plastic bags is the only way to stop them from polluting the environment.

“You can’t keep pulling trash out of the river forever.”

“Our city is so much more beautiful now that we don’t have these bags blowing in our trees and our environment.”

There is still much work to be done to clean up the nation’s capital and the Anacostia River. But change is taking place -- five cents at a time. 


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 bin yR2yz     
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 flattened 1d5d9fedd9ab44a19d9f30a0b81f79a8     
[医](水)平扁的,弄平的
参考例句:
  • She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
  • I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。
3 configuration nYpyb     
n.结构,布局,形态,(计算机)配置
参考例句:
  • Geographers study the configuration of the mountains.地理学家研究山脉的地形轮廓。
  • Prices range from $119 to $199,depending on the particular configuration.价格因具体配置而异,从119美元至199美元不等。
4 flake JgTzc     
v.使成薄片;雪片般落下;n.薄片
参考例句:
  • Drain the salmon,discard the skin,crush the bones and flake the salmon with a fork.将鲑鱼沥干,去表皮,粉碎鱼骨并用餐叉子将鱼肉切成小薄片状。
  • The paint's beginning to flake.油漆开始剥落了。
5 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
6 bins f61657e8b1aa35d4af30522a25c4df3a     
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
7 supervisor RrZwv     
n.监督人,管理人,检查员,督学,主管,导师
参考例句:
  • Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说,我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
  • He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。
8 flattens f3ea5b71164f77bebebca23ad58479b4     
变平,使(某物)变平( flatten的第三人称单数 ); 彻底打败某人,使丢脸; 停止增长(或上升); (把身体或身体部位)紧贴…
参考例句:
  • After Oxford the countryside flattens out. 过了牛津以远乡村逐渐平坦。
  • The graph flattens out gradually after a steep fall. 图表上的曲线突降之后逐渐趋于平稳。
9 Celsius AXRzl     
adj.摄氏温度计的,摄氏的
参考例句:
  • The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
  • The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。
10 dough hkbzg     
n.生面团;钱,现款
参考例句:
  • She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
  • The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。
11 extrusion b8d9085d12342817121834d3a0b7e4a6     
n.挤出;推出;喷出;赶出
参考例句:
  • The dough was formed into tubular grains by extrusion. 药团通过挤压而成管状药。 来自辞典例句
  • Some other materials are added to facilitate extrusion and other manufacturing operations. 添加其它的一些物质是为了使挤压和别的加工过程更为方便。 来自辞典例句
12 countless 7vqz9L     
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的
参考例句:
  • In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
  • I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。
13 watershed jgQwo     
n.转折点,分水岭,分界线
参考例句:
  • Our marriage was at a watershed.我们的婚姻到了一个转折关头。
  • It forms the watershed between the two rivers.它成了两条河流的分水岭。

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