国家地理 没有垃圾的世界可能存在吗(12)

Food

食品

People can't go circular on their own; the system has to change. But individual choices do matter. "It's about using less stuff in the first place," said Liz Goodwin of the World Resources Institute.

人们无法只靠一己之力实现资源循环，整个系统必须转变。但个人选择仍然重要。“首先要做的是消耗更少的产品。”世界资源研究所的利兹·古德温说。

In 2008 the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which Goodwin ran then, did one of the first major studies of food waste. The nonprofit surveyed more than 2,100 British families who had agreed to let inspectors¹ paw through their garbage and weigh each food scrap². "Absolutely shocking," Goodwin recalled. "We found whole chickens in their wrappers." Nearly half of all salad and a quarter of all fruit was ending up in bins³, as were nearly 400,000 tons of potatoes a year. In all, Britons were tossing one of every three bags of groceries.

2008年，古德温当时正在运作的废弃物与资源行动计划（WRAP）率先完成了对食品垃圾的重要调研之一。该非营利组织对英国逾2100个家庭进行调查，得到允许后翻查各家垃圾，将食物残渣汇总称重。“结果绝对令人震惊。”古德温回忆说，“我们多次发现包装完好的整只肉鸡。”每年有接近一半沙拉蔬菜、四分之一的水果和36万吨土豆被丢进垃圾桶。综合来看，英国人购入的每三袋食物中就有一袋被丢弃。

As it turned out, they're not exceptional. Roughly a third of all food is wasted globally, at an annual cost of nearly a trillion dollars, WRAP's global director, Richard Swannell, told me. Over dinner at a restaurant in Oxford⁴, at which we both took care to clean our plates, Swannell explained that before the WRAP study, no one was aware of just how much food -- and money -- was going to waste in Britain.

后来发现这种情况并非英国专有。WRAP的全球主管理查德·斯旺内尔告诉我，全球所有食物约有三分之一被浪费，每年损失近1万亿美元。在牛津共进晚餐时，我们两人都特意吃净盘中餐。斯旺内尔解释说，在进行那项调研之前，人们对英国到底有多少食物以及金钱被浪费并无概念。

WRAP launched a chipper PR campaign ("Love Food Hate Waste"). It worked with women's groups to disseminate⁵ food-rescue tips. (A favorite was ways to dress up toast to save stale bread.) It also persuaded grocery chains to adopt some simple measures: Clearer, extended "use by" dates; smaller, resealable packages; an end to "buy one, get one free" sales on perishables⁶. It was boring stuff, forgotten common sense, but it worked. By 2012 the amount of edible⁷ food wasted in Britain had fallen by a fifth. "We've had massive progress," Swannell said.

WRAP还发起了公关活动“爱美食恨浪费”，并与女性群体合作，传播节省食物的窍门（其中最受欢迎的一种是把旧面包做成加料烤吐司）。它还说服连锁超市采用一些简单措施，例如把可食用期限标注得更清晰，使用容量小、可反复密封的食品包装，取消易变质食品的“买一送一”促销。这只是些无趣的操作或被人遗忘的常识，但确实有效。到2012年，英国的食品浪费量降低了五分之一。“我们已取得了巨大进步。”斯旺内尔说。

1 inspectors   

n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官

参考例句：

• They got into the school in the guise of inspectors. 他们假装成视察员进了学校。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Inspectors checked that there was adequate ventilation. 检查员已检查过，通风良好。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

3 bins   

n.大储藏箱( bin的名词复数 )；宽口箱（如面包箱，垃圾箱等）v.扔掉，丢弃( bin的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Garbage from all sources was deposited in bins on trolleys. 来自各方的垃圾是装在手推车上的垃圾箱里的。 来自辞典例句
• Would you be pleased at the prospect of its being on sale in dump bins? 对于它将被陈列在倾销箱中抛售这件事，你能欣然接受吗？ 来自辞典例句

4 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

5 disseminate   

v.散布；传播

参考例句：

• We should disseminate science and promote the scientific spirit.普及科学知识，弘扬科学精神。
• We sincerely welcome all countries to disseminate their languages in China.我们真诚地欢迎世界各国来华推广本国语言。

6 perishables   

n.容易腐坏的东西（尤指食品）( perishable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Perishables are stacked on deck under cover, awaiting rigid inspection before they are struck below. 易腐物品已经覆盖起来堆放在甲板上，等经过严格的检查后再搬下船舱。 来自辞典例句
• Sorry, these perishables are not allowed to bring in. 对不起，这些易腐烂的东西是不允许入境的。 来自互联网

7 edible   

n.食品，食物；adj.可食用的

参考例句：

• Edible wild herbs kept us from dying of starvation.我们靠着野菜才没被饿死。
• This kind of mushroom is edible,but that kind is not.这种蘑菇吃得，那种吃不得。