2018考博英语阅读经济学人文章每日精析:阻止外来垃圾入侵

2017-09-13 10:51:23来源:网络

  Imports of rubbish have helped feed China’s voracious appetite for raw materials. It is often cheaper to recycle scrap copper, iron and steel, as well as waste paper and plastic, than to make such materials from scratch, especially when commodity prices are high. So as commodity prices rose during the 2000s, the burgeoning trade in waste benefited both exporters, who made money from previously worthless trash, and importers, who gained access to a reliable stream of precious feedstock. Between 1995 and 2016 Chinese imports of waste grew tenfold, from 4.5m to 45m tonnes.

  进口废品的助长了中国对收购原材料的贪婪“胃口”。尤其是在大宗商品价格上涨的时候,回收废铜、铁和钢,以及废纸和塑料,往往比从头开始生产这些材料更加便宜。因此,在21世纪开始的十年,随着大宗商品价格的上涨,出口商在这迅速发展的垃圾贸易中受益,这些出口商从以前没有价值的垃圾中赚到了钱,而进口商则获得了可靠的宝贵原料来源。从1995年到2016年,中国的垃圾进口增长了10倍,从450万增加到4500万吨。

  Voracious 贪婪的;贪吃的;狼吞虎咽的

  Burgeoning 增长迅速的;生机勃勃的

  Feedstock 原料;给料

  But imports of recyclable waste are often dirty, poorly sorted or contaminated with hazardous substances such as lead or mercury. In 1996 factories in Xinjiang inadvertently imported more than 100 tonnes of radioactive metal from Kazakhstan. The following year an American businessman was convicted of smuggling over 200 tonnes of unsorted rubbish labelled as waste paper. Even when the intended material is imported, it is often recycled improperly. In 2002 the authorities faced widespread criticism after a documentary showed workers in Guangdong province crudely dismantling discarded electronic devices and dumping the toxic remains into a river. Officials may have been spurred into the latest restrictions by the release of Plastic China, an unflattering documentary about the plastic-recycling industry which was screened at Sundance, a grand American film festival, in January.

  但是,可回收垃圾的进口往往是脏的。它们分类很差或者受到铅或汞等有害物质的污染。1996年,新疆的工厂无意中从哈萨克斯坦进口了超过100吨的放射性金属。第二年,一名美国商人被判走私超过200吨被标记为废纸的未分类垃圾。即使知道是进口的材料,也经常被不正确的回收。2002年,在一部纪录片里揭露出广东省的工人们粗暴地拆除废弃的电子设备并将有毒的残留物倒入河里后,当局受到了广泛的批评。今年1月,美国盛大电影节“太阳之舞”(Sundance)放映了一部不受人喜欢的的塑料回收行业纪录片-----“中国的塑料”,这可能刺激了官方去发布相关的法律限制。

  Mercury 水银;水银柱;精神

  Inadvertently 非故意地;不注意地

  The government had already been campaigning to block imports of illegal and low-quality waste under a crackdown called Operation Green Fence launched in 2013.(读者试译) Customs officials have ramped up inspections of scrap metal for circuit boards, plastic for syringes and other medical waste, and waste paper for plastic or wood. Since then, China’s imports of waste have fallen sharply (see chart).

  (期待您的翻译,明天将会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟~)海关官员加强了对废旧金属内电路板的排查、在塑料内进行用于注射器和其他医疗废物的排查、废纸内对于塑料或木材的排查。从那以后,中国的垃圾进口急剧下降(见图表)。

  Syringes鸣管,耳咽管;注射器;注射筒;吸管;汲筒;潘神销;(鸟的)鸣管,耳管

  Whereas Green Fence was aimed at improving the quality of imported waste, the government’s latest move bans several types of waste outright, threatening some $5bn in trade. The Ministry of Environmental Protection says the ban will cut pollution. But most of the waste consumed by China’s recycling industry comes from domestic sources, not imports, notes Joshua Goldstein of the University of Southern California: “This is not really where the problem lies.” Indeed, recyclers who rely on imports may now switch to grubbier domestic stock.

  而资源回收公司绿色栅栏(Green Fence)旨在提高进口废物的质量,政府最近采取的行动彻底禁止了多种类型的废物,危及贸易额约50亿美元。环境保护部认为这项禁令将减少污染。“但大多数中国回收企业消耗的废物来自于国内的资源,不是进口的”,南加州大学的Joshua Goldstein指出,“这不是真正的问题所在。”的确,依靠进口的回收者现在可以切换到国内较为肮脏的货物交易了。

  Grubby 肮脏的;邋遢的;污秽的;卑鄙的;可鄙的

  “This is going to be very hard on our industry,” says Adina Renee Adler of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries. As it is, Operation Green Fence has put lots of small recyclers out of business. Exporters will suffer too. Derek Kellenberg of the University of Montana says, “My suspicion is that the lower-quality stuff is more likely to end up in a landfill.”

  废料回收工业协会的Adina Renee Adler说: “这对我们的行业将是很无情的。”因此,资源回收公司绿色栅栏(Green Fence)已经把很多小回收业务剔除。出口商也将蒙受损失。蒙大拿大学的Derek Kellenberg说:“我怀疑低质量的东西很可能最后出现在在垃圾填埋场里。”

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