評論
打印
Culture
文藝版塊
Book review
書評
Recycling's problems
回收的問題
Down in the dumps
垃圾堆深處
Waste Wars. By Alexander Clapp.
《垃圾之戰》，亞歷山大·克拉普著。
What happens to that single-use plastic bottle after you, a conscientious citizen, place it in a recycling bin?
當你作為一個有責任心的公民，把一次性塑料瓶放進回收箱后，這個塑料瓶會經歷什么？
Most people, if they think about it at all, assume it really will be recycled, probably at a facility not far away.
大多數人，如果他們真的想過這個問題，會以為這個塑料瓶真的會被回收，可能就在不遠處的某個垃圾回收廠里。
Much more likely is that the bin is only the departure point on a long journey to the other side of the world, where that bottle will, at best, be washed, dried, sorted by material, turned into pellets and then reconstituted into something flimsier, such as packaging.
更有可能的是，垃圾桶只是一個漫長旅程的起點，這個塑料瓶最終會到達世界的另一端，最好的情況是，塑料瓶會被清洗、晾干、按材料分類，然后變成塑料顆粒，再重新制成更薄的東西，比如包裝材料。
Consider that a victory.
把這看作是勝利吧。
If it is packaging itself that has been chucked, it will probably end up as a filthy form of fuel, powering the production of cement or even tofu.
如果被丟棄的就是包裝材料，那么它很可能會變成一種骯臟的燃料，用于生產水泥，甚至豆腐。
Or it may go all the way just to sit in Asia or Africa, blighting the landscape, clogging rivers, entering the ocean, being swallowed by marine life—and perhaps finding its way, via the global fish trade, back into your home and even into your body.
或者，它可能會一路前行，最終停留在亞洲或非洲，破壞那里的土地，堵塞河流，進入海洋，被海洋生物吞食——甚至可能通過全球魚類貿易，重新回到你的家中，甚至進入你的體內。
It is recycling, but not as people traditionally think of it.
這就是回收，但不是人們傳統上認為的那種回收。
The broad facts of the fiction of recycling are no secret.
回收是一種虛構故事，這一寬泛的事實并非秘密。
But Alexander Clapp, a journalist (who has contributed to 1843, The Economist’s sister publication), does something engrossing, if not entirely appealing, in his book.
但調查記者亞歷山大·克拉普（曾為本刊的姊妹刊物《1843》撰稿）在他的書中寫了一些引人入勝，即便不完全令人愉悅的事。
He follows rubbish, travelling to some of the world’s most unpleasant places to chronicle the effects of consumption: villages in Indonesia buried under mountains of Western plastic, a ship-breaking yard in Turkey where men tear apart the toxic hulls of American cruise ships with hand tools, a fetid slum in Ghana where migrants extract valuable metals from the rich world’s discarded computers and mobile phones.
他追蹤垃圾，前往世界上最令人不快的一些地方，記錄了消費帶來的影響：印度尼西亞的村莊被堆積如山的來自西方的塑料所掩埋；在土耳其的拆船廠，工人們用手動工具拆解美國游輪的有毒船體；在惡臭熏天的加納貧民窟，移民們從富裕世界丟棄的電腦和手機中提取出有價值的金屬。
“Waste Wars” also contains jaw-dropping but forgotten stories, such as that of the Khian Sea, a vessel carrying a season’s worth of ash from garbage incinerators in Philadelphia, which set sail for the Bahamas in 1986.
《垃圾之戰》還包含了一些令人震驚但已被遺忘的故事，比如“希安海號”，這艘船載滿了費城垃圾焚燒廠一個季節產生的灰燼，于1986年前往巴哈馬。
The ship and its toxic cargo were denied entry, forcing the crew to look for alternative dumping sites.
這艘船及其裝載的有毒貨物被拒絕入境，迫使船員尋找其他傾倒地點。
After 27 months of being turned away from every conceivable port, it arrived in Asia with an empty hold.
在被所有可能的港口連續拒絕27個月后，它抵達亞洲時，貨艙是空的。
The captain admitted years later to dumping the ash in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
船長多年后承認，當時將灰燼傾倒在了大西洋和印度洋。
Mr Clapp’s aim is not just to display his ample reporting chops, but to trace the rise of a controversial form of globalisation: the growth of the global trade in waste.
克拉普的目的不僅僅是展示他豐富的報道技巧，更是要追溯一種有爭議的全球化形式的興起：全球垃圾貿易的增長。
As Western countries put in place stricter environmental regulation, the job of disposing of their waste fell to poorer ones.
隨著西方國家實施更嚴格的環境法規，處理垃圾的任務就落到了較貧窮國家身上。
Take the ostensibly green European Union: in 2021 it produced 16m tonnes of plastic waste, less than half of which was recycled within its borders.
以表面上非常綠色環保的歐盟為例：2021年，歐盟產生了1600萬噸塑料垃圾，只有不到一半的垃圾在其境內被回收。
Some exports are well-meaning and welcomed.
一些廢物出口是善意的，并且受到歡迎。
Used electronics arrived in Ghana as donations to bring people online.
用過的電子產品作為捐贈品運抵加納，旨在幫助人們接入互聯網。
China imported plastic waste to use as feedstock.
中國進口一些塑料廢物，用作工業原料。
Turkey turned imported scrap metal into highways and skyscrapers.
土耳其將進口的廢金屬變成了公路和摩天大樓。
Some of the steel from New York’s twin towers, shipped to India as scrap metal, now holds up several buildings, including a college and textile showroom.
紐約雙子塔的一些鋼材作為廢金屬運到印度，現在支撐著印度的幾座建筑，包括一所大學和一個紡織品展廳。
But too many transactions are exploitative and even dishonest.
但是太多的垃圾交易是剝削性的，甚至不誠實的。
Shipments of supposedly recyclable paper have turned out to be full of dirty plastic.
據說是可回收的廢紙，運來后卻全是骯臟的塑料。
The Basel Convention, which came into effect in 1992, dealt with the shipment of hazardous waste but left plenty of loopholes.
于1992年生效的《巴塞爾公約》處理了危險廢物運輸問題，但留下了許多漏洞。
Poor countries have been trying to stop the flood ever since.
貧困國家自那時起便一直在努力阻止危險垃圾涌入。
In 2017 China, which then received half the world’s plastic waste bound for recycling, banned its import.
中國曾接收了全球一半用于回收的塑料垃圾，但于2017年禁止了塑料垃圾的進口。
Much of that waste travelled to South-East Asia instead.
于是許多垃圾轉而流向了東南亞。
Similar bans in Thailand and Indonesia went into effect this year, fuelled by environmental concerns.
出于對環境的擔憂，泰國和印度尼西亞的類似禁令也在今年開始生效。
If they are enforced, the garbage will find its way somewhere else, such as Malaysia, another big recipient of plastic.
如果這些措施得到執行，垃圾將會流向其他地方，比如馬來西亞，這是另一個塑料垃圾的主要接收國。
What is to be done?
該怎么辦呢？
In a world where humans produce their own weight in new plastic annually, there are no easy solutions.
人類每年生產出的新塑料相當于自身體重，在這樣的世界里，沒有簡單的解決方案。
After hundreds of pages describing the problem, Mr Clapp is light on prescriptions.
在用了數百頁的篇幅描述問題之后，克拉普對解決方案的闡述卻顯得簡略。
He suggests making rich-world companies financially liable for “the fate of that which they insist on overproducing”.
他建議，讓富裕國家的企業為“其堅持的生產過剩所造成的后果”承擔經濟責任。
He points the finger of blame at globalisation, weak international co-operation and Western overproduction.
他將責任歸咎于全球化、國際合作薄弱、西方的生產過剩。
There are problems with this.
這樣做存在一些問題。
The first is that tightening regulation in the West will only make countries more likely to find workarounds involving poor ones.
首先是，西方加強監管只會讓各國更有可能找到涉及貧窮國家的變通辦法。
Global action is also probably a non-starter at a time when long-standing alliances are being tested.
全球行動可能也難以啟動，尤其是在長期聯盟關系正受到考驗的當下。
As America withdraws from the Paris Agreement (again) and guts the Environmental Protection Agency, the idea that it would impose measures to prevent the export of waste or require firms to do more for the environment globally is unrealistic.
隨著美國（再次）退出《巴黎協定》，并削弱環境保護局的職能，指望美國采取措施阻止垃圾出口，或要求企業對全球環境做更多貢獻是不現實的。
At times Mr Clapp’s rhetoric sounds suspiciously like a call for de-growth.
有時，克拉普的言辭聽起來像是在呼吁去增長。
It is all very well to tell Americans to be less wasteful.
告訴美國人要減少浪費，這固然很好。
But try telling that to the hundreds of millions of Asians emerging from poverty and buying consumer goods for the first time.
但是試圖讓剛剛擺脫貧困、第一次購買消費品的數億亞洲人減少浪費？
The West has spent centuries lecturing the East on what is good for it.
西方用了幾個世紀的時間向東方說教，告訴他們什么是有益的。
“Don’t be like us,” however well-intentioned, rings the same discordant note.
“不要像我們一樣”，這句話無論多么善意，聽起來總有些刺耳。
