今天是世界海洋日。

2008年12月5日第63屆聯(lián)合國(guó)大會(huì)通過(guò)第111號(hào)決議，決定自2009年起，每年的6月8日為“世界海洋日（World Oceans Day）”。

2019年世界海洋日的主題是“性別與海洋（gender and oceans）”。

現(xiàn)在海洋污染已經(jīng)非常嚴(yán)重，你不用潛到海里就可以看見(jiàn)海面上漂浮的成堆的垃圾，而且這些垃圾還在不斷增加。

幸好，我們的地球上還有一些人在設(shè)法清理海洋垃圾，還發(fā)明了各種高科技的“海洋清理神器”，來(lái)看看它們都有什么本領(lǐng)吧。

The Seabin project
海上垃圾桶

Invented by two Aussie surfers, the Seabin is pretty much exactly what you think: it’s a large flowerpot-shaped container that captures everything from plastic bottles, bags and utensils, as well as trash as small as 2mm. A pump at the bottom of the bin sucks in water and rubbish, which are then separated by a mesh unit inside. The water is then released, while the trash is recycled.

由兩名澳洲沖浪者發(fā)明的海上垃圾桶Seabin和你猜想的差不多：它是一個(gè)花盆狀的大容器，可以捕獲塑料瓶、塑料袋和各種用具，包括2毫米那么小的垃圾。垃圾桶底部的泵可以吸進(jìn)水和垃圾，內(nèi)部的網(wǎng)面會(huì)將它們分離。水被放掉，垃圾被回收。

The seabins are fitted around marinas and coasts, trapping rubbish before it can make its way into the ocean proper. According to the Seabin website, each bin can catch 90,000 plastic bags a year, nearly 36,000 disposable cups, 16,500 plastic bottles and 166,500 plastic utensils. There are over 700 Seabins located around the world, with many concentrated along the coasts of European countries.

海上垃圾桶被安裝在碼頭和海岸周?chē)?，在垃圾進(jìn)入內(nèi)海之前就把垃圾截住。據(jù)Seabin官網(wǎng)介紹，每個(gè)垃圾桶每年可以捕獲9萬(wàn)個(gè)塑料袋、近3.6萬(wàn)個(gè)一次性杯子、16500個(gè)塑料瓶和166500個(gè)塑料用具。世界各地共有700多個(gè)海上垃圾桶，許多都集中在歐洲國(guó)家的海岸沿線。

marina[m?'rin?]: n. 碼頭

Recycling Technologies
回收垃圾新辦法

Capturing plastic in the oceans is one thing, but what to do with it once it’s back on land? According to the UN, less than one tenth of plastic produced gets recycled. However, one UK company has come up with an ingenious way of dealing with types of plastic that are ‘unrecyclable’— before they even make it into our waters.

捕獲海洋垃圾是一回事，但垃圾上岸后要怎么處理它們呢？根據(jù)聯(lián)合國(guó)的數(shù)據(jù)，得到回收的塑料產(chǎn)品還不到十分之一。但是，一家英國(guó)公司想出了一種巧妙的辦法來(lái)處理“不可回收”的塑料，甚至是在這些塑料進(jìn)入海洋之前。

Rather than let many types of plastic get sent to landfills, be incinerated or exported, Recycling Technologies has come up with another solution: melt it, and then turn it into an oil that can then be turned into everything from new packaging to wax for waterproofing, product surface coating and more.

“回收技術(shù)”公司不是將多種垃圾送去垃圾填埋場(chǎng)、焚燒或出口，而是想出了另一種解決辦法：將垃圾熔化提煉出一種油，并用這種油做成新包裝、防水蠟、產(chǎn)品表面涂層等各種產(chǎn)品。

incinerate[?n's?n?re?t]: vt. 焚化；燒成灰

Plastic-eating enzyme
吃塑料的酶

An innovation that has a profound impact on plastic was created completely by accident. Back in April 2018, scientists announced that they inadvertently created an enzyme called PETase that can break polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics down to its original chemicals.

這項(xiàng)對(duì)塑料產(chǎn)生深遠(yuǎn)影響的創(chuàng)新技術(shù)的出現(xiàn)完全是偶然。2018年4月，科學(xué)家宣布無(wú)意間創(chuàng)造出了一種名為PETase的酶，這種酶可以把聚對(duì)苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）塑料分解成原始的化學(xué)物質(zhì)。

inadvertently['?n?d'v?tntli]: adv. 無(wú)意地，不經(jīng)意地

enzyme['?nza?m]: n. [生化] 酶

This is seen as a breakthrough because PET, which is used to make packaging by the food and drink industry, is extremely hard to break down into a state that would allow it to be recycled into other high-quality plastic products, instead coming out as a lower-grade and therefore less-valuable product. This means that new high-quality plastic packaging still has to be made.

這被視為突破性進(jìn)展，因?yàn)橛糜谑称泛惋嬃习b的PET極其難分解，無(wú)法經(jīng)過(guò)回收重新制成高質(zhì)量塑料產(chǎn)品，只能制成低價(jià)值的低級(jí)產(chǎn)品。這意味著還要用新原料來(lái)制作高質(zhì)量的塑料包裝。

However, with the discovery of PETase, it is hoped the recycling loop can be closed so that old PET products get recycled into products of the same high-quality.

然而，隨著PETase被發(fā)現(xiàn)，塑料包裝有望實(shí)現(xiàn)循環(huán)回收利用，舊的PET產(chǎn)品將能經(jīng)過(guò)回收被重新制成同樣高質(zhì)量的產(chǎn)品。

WasteShark
垃圾鯊魚(yú)

Referred to as the ‘Wall-E of the water’ the WasteShark is an aquadrone that sucks up garbage from the water.

綽號(hào)“水中瓦力”的垃圾鯊魚(yú)是從海水中吸走垃圾的水下無(wú)人機(jī)。

Created by RanMarine, a Dutch environmental technology company, the WasteShark was initially deployed in the Dubai Marina. It can swim for up to 16 hours and consume as much as 1,100lbs of trash.

荷蘭環(huán)保技術(shù)公司RanMarine制造的垃圾鯊魚(yú)最初被用于迪拜碼頭。垃圾鯊魚(yú)可以持續(xù)游16個(gè)小時(shí)，吃進(jìn)多達(dá)1100磅（約500千克）的垃圾。

It collects everything from floating trash, plastic and even microplastic. It has sensors that measure everything from pH, nitrate, water salinity and chloride. Once the trash is collected, the aquadrone delivers it to the collection point.

垃圾鯊魚(yú)可以收集從漂浮物到塑料的各種垃圾，甚至可以吸進(jìn)塑料微粒。它的傳感器可以測(cè)量酸堿度、硝酸鹽、鹽度、氯化物等各種指標(biāo)。一旦垃圾裝滿，水下無(wú)人機(jī)就會(huì)把垃圾送到收集點(diǎn)。

PlanetCare’s washing machine filter
可以捕獲微纖維的洗衣機(jī)過(guò)濾網(wǎng)

PlanetCare approaches the issue of ocean pollution from a different angle. Rather than dealing with the plastic pollution that has already made it out into the open water, the Slovenian company designed a product that tackles it at source.

PlanetCare公司從一個(gè)不同的角度來(lái)應(yīng)對(duì)海洋垃圾問(wèn)題。這家斯洛維尼亞公司不是處理已經(jīng)進(jìn)入海洋的塑料垃圾，而是設(shè)計(jì)出一個(gè)從源頭控制污染的產(chǎn)品。

The company’s focus is microfibres on items of clothing such as fleeces. These strands, as small as 0.5mm are too small to be captured by machine wash filters, and ultimately make their way into the ocean, where they are mistaken for food by marine life. The fish can then suffocate on the fibers which can also attract toxins.

這家公司專(zhuān)注于對(duì)付絨毛這種衣物上的微纖維。這些只有0.5毫米大小的微纖維無(wú)法被洗衣機(jī)的過(guò)濾網(wǎng)捕獲，最終會(huì)進(jìn)入海洋，被海洋生物誤認(rèn)為食物。這些微纖維會(huì)導(dǎo)致魚(yú)類(lèi)窒息，還會(huì)吸收毒素。

PlanetCare has created a special washing machine filter that is designed to capture the fibres shed from clothes during washes, which can add up to as many as 700,000 per average 6kg wash.

PlanetCare公司發(fā)明出一種特別的洗衣機(jī)過(guò)濾網(wǎng)，旨在捕獲衣物清洗過(guò)程中掉落的微纖維。6千克衣物在清洗過(guò)程中掉落的微纖維平均可達(dá)70萬(wàn)個(gè)。

英文來(lái)源：每日郵報(bào)

翻譯&編輯：丹妮