英國(guó)設(shè)計(jì)師把口香糖變廢為寶英語(yǔ)美文

　　British designer Anna Bullus is on a mission to recycle chewing gum into useful objects, cleaning up our streets in the process.

　　英國(guó)設(shè)計(jì)師安娜布勒斯的任務(wù)是回收口香糖，將其變廢為寶，從而清理街道。

　　More than ?14bn is spent on chewing gum around the world each year, but a lot of that gum will end up stuck to the ground.

　　世界各地每年處理口香糖費(fèi)用超過(guò)140億英鎊,但很多口香糖還是留在了地面上。

　　Gum is the second most common type of street litter after cigarette materials.

　　口香糖是僅次于香煙的第二常見(jiàn)的街頭垃圾。

　　In the UK, councils spend around ?50m each year cleaning up the mess.

　　英國(guó)議會(huì)每年花費(fèi)約5000萬(wàn)清理口香糖。

　　But Anna had an idea. What if the sticky stuff could actually be recycled and turned into useful objects?

　　但是安娜有個(gè)主意。如果這些黏糊糊的東西真的可以循環(huán)利用，變成有用的東西呢?

　　Around 10 years ago, she began a project looking at kerbside litter. She examined random samples, looking at things like crisp packets and cigarette butts. She then tried to figure out which elements could be recycled.

　　大約10年前，她開(kāi)始研究路邊垃圾。隨機(jī)抽樣看到了一些像薯片和煙頭之類的東西。然后她試圖找出哪些元素可以回收利用。

　　"One of the litters I found was a piece of chewing gum and as a designer I was completely amazed there was nothing actually being done to recycle it," she said.

　　她說(shuō):“我發(fā)現(xiàn)的`其中一種垃圾口香糖，作為一名設(shè)計(jì)師，我完全驚呆了，其實(shí)沒(méi)有什么東西可以回收口香糖�！�

　　Researching the chemistry of chewing gum, she discovered that its main ingredient, the gum base, is commonly a synthetic rubber, a type of polymer similar to plastic.

　　研究口香糖化學(xué)成分時(shí)，她發(fā)現(xiàn)口香糖的主要成分是膠基，通常是一種合成橡膠，一種類似塑料的聚合物。

　　"It’s called polyisobutylene," explains Anna, "the same stuff you find in the inner tube of bicycle wheels."

　　安娜解釋說(shuō)：“就是聚異丁烯，自行車內(nèi)胎就是這種物質(zhì)。”

　　It is obtained from petrochemicals, which are refined from fossil fuels like crude oil.

　　從原油等化石燃料中提煉出石化產(chǎn)品，從石化產(chǎn)品中提煉出聚異丁烯。

　　She realised that chewing gum, even once it has been finished with, is a versatile and potentially useful material.

　　她意識(shí)到，即便是嚼過(guò)的口香糖也是一種用途廣泛且可能有用的材料。

　　Collecting gum

　　收集口香糖

　　But how do you persuade people to donate their gum - instead of carelessly tossing it on to the street?

　　但是如何說(shuō)服人們捐贈(zèng)口香糖而不是隨意地把它吐在街道上?

　　As part of her strategy, Anna created bright pink, bubble-shaped bins specially for disposing of gum called Gumdrop, which can be hung at head-height.

　　作為其策略的一部分，安娜設(shè)計(jì)了亮粉色、泡沫狀的箱子，專門(mén)用來(lái)處理被稱為Gumdrop的口香糖，它可以與頭部等高。

　　These bins are themselves made of recycled chewing gum. A message next to the bins explains that any gum collected will be recycled into new objects.

　　這些箱子用來(lái)回收口香糖。垃圾箱旁邊的標(biāo)識(shí)解釋說(shuō)，回收的口香糖將用來(lái)制作新物品。

　　But would gum-chewers use them?

　　但是嚼口香糖的人會(huì)用嗎?

　　The University of Winchester was one of the first places to sign up to use the bins. Around 8,000 people live and work on its campus and the authorities wanted to keep it clean of gum litter.

　　溫徹斯特大學(xué)是最早報(bào)名使用該垃圾箱的地方之一。大約有8000人在校園中生活和工作，學(xué)校希望保持清潔沒(méi)有口香糖垃圾。

　　It adopted a twin-pronged strategy to tackle the problem.

　　該校采取了雙管齊下的策略來(lái)解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題。

　　It installed 11 of Anna’s special bins and to reinforce the message that gum can be recycled if disposed of responsibly, it gave out hundreds of coffee cups made of recycled gum to first-year students.

　　學(xué)校安裝了11個(gè)安娜設(shè)計(jì)的專用垃圾桶，并宣傳道：如果處理得當(dāng)，口香糖可回收利用，將分發(fā)幾百個(gè)由回收口香糖制成的咖啡杯給大一新生。

　　"Students would give the cup a sniff to check it didn’t smell of mint or bubble gum," recalls Liz Harris, the university’s environmental officer.

　　“學(xué)生們會(huì)用鼻子嗅一嗅，看看能否聞到薄荷味或泡泡糖的味道，”該校環(huán)境官員利茲哈里斯回憶道。

　　It’s because so much of the chewing gum sold on the high street is a polymer [so it] can be used to make new products.

　　這是因?yàn)榇蠼稚腺u(mài)的口香糖是一種聚合物，可以用來(lái)制造新產(chǎn)品。

　　When people get it, it’s a really nice moment.

　　嚼口香糖是一個(gè)非常美好的時(shí)刻。

　　Eighteen months later, the university noticed a drop in gum litter and is expanding the scheme.

　　18個(gè)月后，該校注意到口香糖垃圾減少，不斷擴(kuò)大該計(jì)劃。

　　Heathrow Airport also ran a three-month trial which it said led to a "noticeable improvement" and saved it ?6,000 in cleaning costs. Great Western Railway has installed the bins in more than 25 of its railway stations and is rolling out the scheme further.

　　希思羅機(jī)場(chǎng)也試用了三個(gè)月，表示情況“明顯改善”,節(jié)約了6000英鎊的清理成本。大西部鐵路在超過(guò)25個(gè)火車站安裝了該垃圾箱，并將進(jìn)一步推廣該計(jì)劃。

　　In each case, the bins did not suddenly solve the problem of gum litter, but they did seem to begin to change people’s behaviour.

　　垃圾箱并沒(méi)有解決口香糖垃圾的問(wèn)題，但似乎開(kāi)始改變?nèi)藗兊男袨椤?/p>