Your Recyclables Get Recycled, Right?

Oregon is serious about recycling. Its residents are accustomed to dutifully separating milk cartons, yogurt containers, cereal boxes and kombucha bottles from their trash to divert them from the landfill. But this year, because of a far-reaching rule change in China, some of the recyclables are ending up in the local dump anyway.

In recent months, in fact, thousands of tons of material left curbside for recycling in dozens of U.S. cities and towns — including several in Oregon — have gone to landfills.

奧勒岡州認真看待垃圾回收一事。當地居民習慣於盡責地將牛奶盒、優酪乳容器、麥片盒及康普茶罐從自家垃圾中分出來，以免被送到垃圾掩埋場去，但今年因中國一項影響深遠的法規改變，部分可回收物最終都會進到當地的垃圾場。

事實上，近幾個月全美國有數十個城鎮，包括奧勒岡州的幾個城鎮，成千上萬噸放在路邊等待回收的材料已進入垃圾掩埋場。

In the past, the municipalities would have shipped much of their used paper, plastics and other scrap materials to China for processing. But as part of a broad antipollution campaign, China announced last summer that it no longer wanted to import “foreign garbage.” Since Jan. 1 it has banned imports of various types of plastic and paper, and tightened standards for materials it does accept.

While some waste managers already send their recyclable materials to be processed domestically, or are shipping more to other countries, others have been unable to find a substitute for the Chinese market. “All of a sudden, material being collected on the street doesn’t have a place to go,” said Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability at Republic Services, one of the largest waste managers in the country.

過去，市政當局會將大部分廢紙、塑膠及其他廢料運往中國大陸進行加工，但作為一場全面反汙染運動的部分行動，中國在去年夏天宣佈不希望再進口「外國垃圾」。自今年1月1日起，中國禁止進口各種塑膠與紙張，並採取了更嚴格的接受材料標準。

雖然有些廢棄物管理業者已將可回收材料改在國內處理，或提高運往中國以外國家的數量，但其他業者卻未能找到足以代替中國市場的地方。美國最大廢棄物管理業者之一「共和服務」公司負責回收和永續性發展的副總裁皮特．凱勒說：「突然間，街上收集到的材料無處可去。」

China’s stricter requirements also mean that loads of recycling are more likely to be considered contaminated if they contain materials that are not recyclable. That has compounded a problem that waste managers call wishful or aspirational recycling: people setting aside items for recycling because they believe or hope they are recyclable, even when they are not.

In the Pacific Northwest, Republic has diverted more than 2,000 tons of paper to landfills since the Chinese ban came into effect, Keller said. The company has been unable to move that material to a market “at any price or cost,” he said. Though Republic is dumping only a small portion of its total inventory so far — the company handles more than 5 million tons of recyclables nationwide each year — it sent little to no paper to landfills last year.

中國更嚴格的要求也意味著，可回收貨物若含有不可回收材料，更可能被認定為已受到汙染，這令廢棄物管理業者所謂一廂情願或渴望式回收的問題變得更麻煩：人們分出物品來進行回收，因為相信或希望它們是可以回收的，即便它們不能。

凱勒表示，中國大陸停收令生效以來，共和服務在美國西北部濱太平洋地區已將2000多噸廢紙轉送至垃圾掩埋場，他並稱該公司無法「不計何價格或成本」將這些材料轉移至別的市場。雖然共和服務迄今僅傾倒其總庫存的一小部分，但它去年送到掩埋場的紙張極少，甚至是沒有。該公司每年在全美國處理的回收物超過500萬噸。

But for smaller companies, like Rogue Disposal and Recycling, which serves much of Oregon, the Chinese ban has upended operations. Rogue sent all its recycling to landfills for the first few months of the year, said Garry Penning, a spokesman.

文／Livia Albeck-Ripka 譯／陳韋廷

但對規模較小的公司而言，例如為奧勒岡州大部分地區提供服務的羅格處理回收公司，中國的禁令已造成營運大亂。發言人蓋瑞．潘寧表示，今年前幾個月羅格把所有回收物全送進了掩埋場。

說文解字看新聞

中國大陸今年起停收洋垃圾，美國等垃圾輸出國嚴重適應不良，許多回收垃圾最終只得送至垃圾掩埋場，而環保人士憂心如此作法恐衝擊地球生態且使環境負荷大增，因回收量減少後全球勢須生產更多塑膠新品來應付製造業的需求。

scrap material為廢料之意，而scrap一字也有廢料的意思，指的是生產過程中遺留下來可用於再加工的材料，它的價格可能相當昂貴，如廢五金（scrap metal）與廢鋼鐵（scrap of iron and steel）等等，而waste（廢棄物）的定義則非常廣泛，包含有形（tangible）與無形（intangible）兩種形式，例如紙板（cupboard）與塑膠就是可回收的廢棄物。

至於垃圾一字，美式英文跟英式英文則有不同的說法，美國人常用trash或garbage來表達，英國人則是rubbish，而垃圾分類的英文則是separate the trash。此外，junk也有垃圾之意，如垃圾食物說成junk food。

最後順帶一提，文中首段單字kombucha指的是種經發酵製成的茶飲，又名紅茶菌或冬菇茶，據說因有高度美容及健康效果，深受歐美名流喜愛。

文／陳韋廷