日前提交給美國聯(lián)邦政府的一份新報告顯示，美國人口雖只占全球的4.3%，但美國卻是全球塑料垃圾的最大來源國，每年制造的塑料垃圾總量比整個歐盟的總和還要多。

The US is the world’s biggest culprit in generating plastic waste and the country urgently needs a new strategy to curb the vast amount of plastic that ends up in the oceans, a new report submitted to the federal government has found.

一份提交給美國聯(lián)邦政府的新報告發(fā)現(xiàn)，美國是全世界塑料垃圾的最大來源國。報告認為，美國亟需制定新戰(zhàn)略來遏制污染海洋的大量塑料垃圾。

The advent of cheap, versatile plastics has created “a global scale deluge of plastic waste seemingly everywhere we look”, the report states, with the US a leading contributor of disposable plastics that ends up entangling and choking marine life, harming ecosystems and bringing harmful pollution up through the food chain.

報告指出，廉價又用途廣泛的塑料造成“全球范圍內隨處可見塑料垃圾泛濫的景象”，其中一次性塑料制品會導致海洋生物被纏繞和窒息，危害生態(tài)系統(tǒng)、在食物鏈中向上傳遞有害污染，而美國則是“貢獻”一次性塑料制品最多的國家。

Plastic waste has increased sharply in the US since 1960, with the country now generating about 42m metric tons of plastic waste a year, amounting to about 130kg of waste for every person in America. This total is more than all European Union member countries combined. The overall amount of municipal waste created in the US is also two to eight times greater than comparable countries around the world, the report found.

從上世紀60年代起，美國的塑料垃圾開始急劇增加?，F(xiàn)在美國每年大約會產生4200萬公噸塑料垃圾，這意味著每個美國人平均一年產生130千克塑料垃圾。美國一年產生的塑料垃圾總量比所有歐盟國家的垃圾總和加起來還要多。報告發(fā)現(xiàn)，與其他體量相當?shù)膰蚁啾龋绹a生的城市垃圾總量也要多出2到8倍。

Recycling infrastructure has failed to keep pace with the huge growth in American plastic production. Littering, dumping and inefficient waste disposal in landfills has caused up to 2.2m tons of plastic – including everything from plastic bottles and straws to packaging – to “l(fā)eak” into the environment each year. The total waste may be even greater than this due to data gaps in tracking it.

美國回收基礎設施的處理能力已經跟不上美國塑料垃圾增長的速度。亂丟垃圾、垃圾傾倒和垃圾填埋場對垃圾的低效處理每年導致包括塑料瓶、塑料吸管和塑料包裝在內的220萬噸塑料垃圾“泄露”到環(huán)境中。由于追蹤數(shù)據(jù)存在的漏洞，實際總量甚至可能比這個數(shù)字還要大。

Much of this plastic ends up, via rivers and streams, in the world’s oceans.

很多塑料垃圾最后都經由河流進入了世界各大海洋。

Worldwide, at least 8.8m tons of plastic waste enters the marine environment each year, the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck filled with plastic into the ocean every single minute. If current trends continue, scientists have estimated this total could leap to 53m tons annually by 2030, which is roughly half of the weight of all fish caught from the oceans globally each year.

在世界范圍內，每年至少有880萬噸塑料垃圾進入海洋環(huán)境，相當于每分鐘就有一卡車的塑料垃圾傾倒進海洋。如果當前的這種趨勢持續(xù)下去，科學家預計到2030年塑料垃圾總量每年將達到5300萬噸，這大約相當于全球每年從海洋捕撈的所有魚類重量的一半。

"Plastic waste is an environmental and social crisis that the US needs to affirmatively address from source to sea,” said Margaret Spring, chief conservation and science officer at Monterey Bay Aquarium. Spring chaired a committee of experts who compiled the congressionally mandated report for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

蒙特利灣水族館的首席環(huán)?？茖W官瑪格麗特·斯普林說：“塑料垃圾是美國需要積極處理的一個環(huán)境和社會危機，涉及從源頭到海洋各環(huán)節(jié)?！彼蛊樟质蔷幾@一國會授權報告的專家委員會的領頭人。該報告是為美國國家科學、工程和醫(yī)學研究院撰寫的。

The committee’s report recommends that a new national strategy is required by the end of next year to stem the flow of plastics into the ocean. The strategy, the report states, should aim to slash plastic production, particularly for plastics not reusable or recyclable, help promote alternative materials that can be reused and set better standards for waste collection and capture.

報告建議，美國明年年底前應出臺一項新的國家戰(zhàn)略來阻止塑料垃圾流入海洋。報告指出，這一戰(zhàn)略的目標應該是大量減少塑料生產，尤其是不可再利用或不可回收的塑料，推進可重復利用替代材料的研發(fā)和生產，并為垃圾收集和捕獲制定更高標準。

The US, along with many other developed countries, used to outsource its waste problem by shipping plastics to China but these imports were halted by the Chinese in 2018. This has led to an increase in plastic waste sent to other countries, such as Vietnam and Thailand, as well as “recycled” plastic being burned in domestic landfills unable to cope with the sheer volume of waste.

過去，美國和許多其他發(fā)達國家一樣將塑料垃圾運到中國，通過這種方式將垃圾問題外包，然而中國從2018年開始停止進口“洋垃圾”。結果美國不得不將更多塑料垃圾運往越南、泰國等其他國家，或者將“回收的”塑料在無力處理海量垃圾的國內垃圾填埋場燃燒。

"There is an urgency to the issue because production is increasing, waste generation is increasing and therefore leakage impacts have the potential to increase too,” said Jenna Jambeck, a member of the scientific committee behind the report.

撰寫報告的科學委員會成員詹娜·詹貝克說：“這個問題亟待解決，因為塑料生產一直在增加，產生的塑料垃圾也越來越多，垃圾泄露到環(huán)境中的影響也會因此加深?！?/p>

英文來源：衛(wèi)報

翻譯&編輯：丹妮