'Big step' needed on UK landfill 英国垃圾堆处理需要“跨越一
文章来源:未知 文章作者:meng 发布时间:2009-10-13 05:11 字体: [ ]  进入论坛
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)

Standing1 in a huge hole in the ground which is slowly being filled with thousands of tonnes of stinking2 rubbish it's easy to see why landfill gets a bad press.

站在地上一个巨大的坑洞旁边看到成千上万吨发出恶臭的垃圾被填进去,大家就会理解为什么垃圾堆臭名远扬了。

More than half the waste in the UK is sent to landfill
More than half the waste in the UK is sent to landfill

The site in Bury is one of dozens across the country - it is a giant sand quarry3(采砂场) with a void(空的) in the middle which feels the size of a football stadium.

And all day, every day that void is being filled by a fleet of heavy lorries which dump rubbish into the path of a bulldozer(推土机) which compacts it down to make way for the next load - 600,000 tonnes a year.

Landfill has never been pretty. But it has for decades been an effective way of dealing4 with waste. It is true that we are - as a nation - getting better. But the UK still dumps over half of its waste into landfill, compared with EU neighbours like Germany where the figure is about 1%.

The Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, says it is time for a radical5 rethink: "We can't keep producing large amounts of rubbish and putting it in holes in the ground... it's producing greenhouse gases which are contributing to a problem we have to solve, we are throwing away things that have a value.

"We've been living in a 50-year bubble in which we thought we could throw away things without regard to the consequences. It's got to change."

There are already tough European rules - and fines - designed to dramatically cut the use of landfill. But now the government is calling together local authorities to tell them they must do more.

'Zero waste'

At a "waste summit" in London, Mr Benn will tell council leaders they' have done well to increase recycling from 8% to 37% in the past 12 years, but that another "big step" is needed.

Latest government figures say we in UK send more than half our waste to landfill. That is a huge 62 million tonnes a year in England alone. Now the aim is to reduce landfill by at least 50% over the next 10 years.

If the UK is going to achieve its new "mission statement" of becoming a "zero waste nation" it will need to see more investment on the scale adopted by the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Agency.

It is ploughing an estimated £4.5bn into waste management over the next 25 years. The money is being used to build and run huge a variety of projects including composters for garden and food waste, anaerobic6 digesters(厌氧消解器) to create energy from rubbish and huge recycling schemes.

The director of contract services, David Taylor, says it represents good value for money.

"We want to divert waste away from landfill and get as much value as we can from the waste we receive. That's being achieved through composting, recycling and through treatment of the residual7 waste(废物残渣)," he says.

"We have a simple choice: we can do nothing but that will cost people considerably8 more that what it has cost to develop all these facilities."



点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 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。
2 stinking ce4f5ad2ff6d2f33a3bab4b80daa5baa     
adj.臭的,烂醉的,讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 );发臭味;名声臭;糟透
参考例句:
  • I was pushed into a filthy, stinking room. 我被推进一间又脏又臭的屋子里。
  • Those lousy, stinking ships. It was them that destroyed us. 是的!就是那些该死的蠢猪似的臭飞船!是它们毁了我们。 来自英汉非文学 - 科幻
3 quarry ASbzF     
n.采石场;v.采石;费力地找
参考例句:
  • Michelangelo obtained his marble from a quarry.米开朗基罗从采石场获得他的大理石。
  • This mountain was the site for a quarry.这座山曾经有一个采石场。
4 dealing NvjzWP     
n.经商方法,待人态度
参考例句:
  • This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
  • His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。
5 radical hA8zu     
n.激进份子,原子团,根号;adj.根本的,激进的,彻底的
参考例句:
  • The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
  • She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。
6 anaerobic BLzyN     
adj.厌氧的
参考例句:
  • Anaerobic respiration occurs only in particularly active tissues such as muscles during severe exercise. 厌氧呼吸只有在处于剧烈运动状态的肌肉等特别活跃的组织中才会发生。
  • Infection,especially anaerobic infection, is much more apt to occur.感染,特别是厌氧感染很容易发生。
7 residual SWcxl     
adj.复播复映追加时间;存留下来的,剩余的
参考例句:
  • There are still a few residual problems with the computer program.电脑程序还有一些残留问题。
  • The resulting residual chromatism is known as secondary spectrum.所得到的剩余色差叫做二次光谱。
8 considerably 0YWyQ     
adv.极大地;相当大地;在很大程度上
参考例句:
  • The economic situation has changed considerably.经济形势已发生了相当大的变化。
  • The gap has narrowed considerably.分歧大大缩小了。
TAG标签: rubbish UK waste landfill
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