旧金山如何逐渐成为零垃圾排放城市 How San Francisco Is Becoming A Zero Waste City

旧金山如何逐渐成为零垃圾排放城市 How San Francisco Is Becoming A Zero Waste City
Did you know that the urban waste produced from cities around the world is enough to fill a line of garbage trucks stretching more than 3,100 miles?
你知道吗？世界各地城市产生的城市废弃物足以让一整串垃圾车排队，其长度将超过5000公里。
That's a distance from Florida to Washington, every day.
这个距离等于每天从佛罗里达开到华盛顿的里程。
And things are only expected to get worse.
而且预计情况将会进一步恶化。
Thankfully, some cities such as San Francisco are paving the way and trying to change the way we think about trash.
幸运的是，像旧金山这样的一些城市正在引领潮流，试图改变我们看待垃圾的方式。
San Francisco plans to become zero waste by 2020, which is a pretty ambitious but awesome goal.
旧金山计划在2020年达到零垃圾排放，这个目标虽然极具挑战性，但却十分令人赞叹。
And this is the main nerve center for all of the city's recyclables.
这里是旧金山所有可回收废物处理的中心枢纽。
This is where everything ends up to be sorted and processed.
这是所有项目最终分类和加工处理的所在地。
What is zero waste?
什么是零废弃？
It's an idea, and it means sending next to nothing to landfills or incinerators.
它是一种理念，其核心在于几乎不向垃圾填埋场或焚烧设施排放废物。
In 2009, the city passed a law requiring residents and businesses to sort their waste into recyclables, compostables, and landfill trash.
2009年，该城市颁布了一项法令，规定居民与商家必须将垃圾分为可回收物、堆肥物和送往填埋场的垃圾三类。
Recology is the private company that handles it all.
负责一手包办这些垃圾处理工作的是名为Recology的私营企业。
When I started at Recology 23 years ago, the recycling rate was around 38%.
我23年前创办Recology时，当时的回收率约为38%。
Today we've more than doubled that.
如今，我们的回收率已经增长了一倍还多。
So far, San Francisco has diverted 80% of its waste away from landfills, and its success has been getting global attention.
截至现在，旧金山已成功让80%的废弃物避免进入垃圾填埋场，这一成就获得了国际社会的广泛关注。
Government representatives from all over the world visit this facility to learn about how they might be able to replicate what's being done here.
世界各地的政府代表纷纷造访这座设施，以学习如何借鉴这里的成功经验。
What is the current method of waste management or recycling in your town?
请问贵镇目前采用的废弃物处理或回收方式是怎样的？
What we have a lot of in Denmark is actually incineration, where you will burn the waste.
在丹麦，我们较为普遍的废物处理方法其实是焚烧处理，即通过燃烧处理垃圾。
Do you think that you might implement some of what you've learned here?
您觉得会把在这里学到的一些方法应用到实践中去吗？
One thing that we have heard about is the value of composting.
我们了解到，堆肥具有重要价值。
We don't do that a lot.
我们并不经常这么做。
So maybe we will go home and do more composting.
因此，我们或许应该回家尝试加强堆肥的工作。
San Francisco now collects 650 tons of food scraps, yard trimmings, and other organic waste every day.
旧金山目前每日处理650吨食物残余、庭院修剪垃圾及其他有机废料。
That material is brought here to be turned into compost.
这些物料被运送至此，转化为堆肥。
This is one of the most modern composting facilities in North America.
这是北美洲最先进的堆肥处理设施之一。
OK, so you can see a bunch of stuff here that people have thrown away.
好的，你可以看到这里堆积了许多人们丢弃的物品。
Mostly like wood here.
主要是一些木材。
A shoe, this flip-flop.
一只鞋，这里有一双夹脚拖。
Yeah. What's up with shoes?
是的。鞋子出了什么问题？
Well, there's seven billion people on the planet, so there's a lot of shoes.
呃，地球上有七十亿人口，因此鞋子的数量自然也不少。
We're in a culture here in California where people are moving very quickly, and so people make mistakes.
在加利福尼亚，我们生活在一个节奏极快的文化中，因此人们有时会犯下错误。
So we get the things that are not supposed to be here, we get them removed right away, right at the beginning.
因此，我们会立刻处理掉那些不应出现在此处的物品，确保一开始就清除干净。
After the waste is ground up and screened for plastic and other bits of trash, the organic matter left over gets watered and aerated.
将废物粉碎并筛除塑料及其他杂物之后，剩余的有机部分便会进行浇灌和增氧处理。
A piping system then filters out dangerous greenhouse gases produced by microbes.
随后，通过管道系统过滤掉由微生物产生的有害温室气体。
In about 60 days, the compost is complete and sold to local organic farmers and vineyards.
大概60天后，堆肥制作完成并可供销售，当地有机农场和葡萄酒庄是其主要购买者。
How does composting help the environment?
堆肥是如何帮助保护环境的？
Composting keeps materials out of landfills, it returns nutrients to farms, it reduces the production of very potent greenhouse gases, it attracts and retains water, like rainwater. I mean, it smells like hell.
堆肥有助于减少垃圾填埋量，将营养物质返回农田，降低强效温室气体的产生，并能吸纳及保持水分，比如雨水。我的意思是，它的气味难闻极了。
But it's actually very beautiful, what you're describing here.
但事实上，你所描述的这一切其实很美好。
You know, people's food scraps, which might otherwise be waste, comes here to essentially feed these farms and produce new crops.
你知道吗，那些原本可能被丢弃的食物残渣，都被带到这里来，成了滋养农场、促进新农作物生长的养分。
Well, from this facility, more than 300 vineyards have received the compost and applied it to their vineyards.
实际上，已经有超过300家葡萄园从这个设施获得了堆肥，并用它们来改善自家的葡萄田。
Farmers are using the compost to grow cover crops that pull carbon out of the atmosphere and return carbon back to the soil.
农民们正使用这些堆肥来栽培覆盖作物，这些作物能够吸收大气中的碳并将其还给土壤。
This is one of the best things we can do in an effort to slow down climate change.
这是我们努力减缓气候变化能做的最有效的举措之一。
People have really heard a lot about environmental problems.
人们实际上对环境问题已经有了广泛的了解。
They want to hear now a lot more about environmental solutions.
他们现在更希望听到关于环境解决方案的信息。