VOA常速英语2018--从尿液中循环肥料或成未来环保方向（在线收听）

On this hot summer afternoon outside Brattleboro Vermont, farmer Dean Hamilton has fired up his tractor and is fertilizing his hay filled with urine. It takes a bit of time to get used to the idea, says environmental engineer Nancy Love. I’ve been surprised at how many people actually get beyond the gauge factor pretty quickly and are willing to listen. The nonprofit Rich Earth Institute is working with Love and her team with support from the National Science Foundation. They are fine-tuning new methods to recycle urine into fertilizer.

这是一个盛夏的下午，在佛蒙特州的伯瑞特波罗外，农民汉密尔顿发动了拖拉机，准备用尿液给干草施肥。让大家接受这个点子，颇费了一番工夫，环境工程师南希如是说道。我震惊于竟然有这么多人以如此快的速度超越常规，并愿意倾听。非营利组织丰富的地球研究所正在与南希团队合作，并且也获得了美国国家科学基金会的支持。他们正在对新方法进行微调，目的是将尿液循环为肥料。

There’s a great quote by Buckminster Fuller about how pollution is nothing but the resources that we’re not harvesting and that we allow them to disperse because we’ve been ignorant to their value. Harvesting the resource of urine which is after all full of the same nutrients as chemical fertilizer will fix two problems at once: Eliminate waste and create a natural fertilizer. The Rich Earth Institute has been using urine as fertilizer since 2012. They collect about 26,000 liters a year thanks to a loyal group of dedicated donors. We now have people who have some source separating toilets in their homes. We also have people who have 55-gallon barrels or they collect, and then we transport to our farms, and we’ve also got a larger urine depot. They pasteurize the urine to kill any microbes and then it’s applied directly onto hay fields. Now that they’ve partnered with the University of Michigan, Love says they’re looking to go to the next level.

巴克敏斯特·福乐有一句名言说：污染就是我们没有利用的资源，我们没有让这样的资源得以扩散，是因为我们对它们的价值一无所知。利用尿液这种资源是因为不管怎么说，尿液跟化学肥料有相同的营养成分。这样做可以解决2个问题：消除垃圾；创造自然肥料。丰富的地球研究所从2012年起就开始用尿液做肥料了。他们每年都会收集近2.6万升尿液，这些尿液都是当地的一个组织捐献的。现在有一些人的家里有资源分离的厕所；还有一些人或积攒或收集了规格为55加仑桶的尿液，然后我们会运送尿液到农场，而且我们有更大规模的尿液存储仓库。他们会对尿液进行巴氏杀菌，可以杀死微生物，然后直接撒在干草地里。现在，因为跟密歇根大学建立了合作，所以南希表示他们正在想办法实现提高尿液利用的水准。

There are three things we really are trying to do with the urine. And this kind of next phase, we’re trying to concentrate it. We’re trying to apply technologies to reduce odor, and we’re trying to deal with the trace contaminants like the pharmaceuticals. Dealing with pharmaceuticals is an important issue. Heating up urine kills germs, but has no effect on chemicals like drugs that pass through our bodies. We know pharmaceuticals are a problem for aquatic organisms and water systems. It’s debatable about the impact on human health at very very low levels. Independent of that, I think most people would prefer that they not be in there. They’re food.

有三件事情是我们想用尿液来竭力实现的。而该工作的下一阶段是我们工作的焦点。我们正在尝试通过各种技术的应用来减少臭味，而且我们也在竭力应对污染物的问题，比如药物。处理尿液中的药物是一个重要的问题。给尿液加热虽然能杀死细菌，但却对化学物质（比如经过人体处理的药物）没有效果。我们都知道到药物对于水生生物和供水系统来说都是问题。。目前还不确定其含量较低的时候对人体健康的影响。但对人体是否有影响，我认为大多数人都更希望所用的尿液中不含药物。毕竟这是要吃到嘴里的东西。

For Love, this is all about redesigning our waste water infrastructure for the 21st century. Too many nutrients in the water leads to poor water quality by causing hazardous algal blooms. Our water emissions are going into very sensitive water bodies that are vulnerable to these nutrient loads. We need to change that dynamic and if we can capture them and put them to a beneficial use, that’s what they’re trying to do. Their efforts could make agriculture greener and our waterways cleaner.

对于南希来说，这一切的关键都在于重新设计21世纪的废水基础设施。水里如果营养物太多，水质救护很差，因为会产生具有危害性的藻类繁殖。我们排放的污水会进入十分敏感的水体中，这样的水体很易受到养分负荷的影响。我们需要改变这样的动态。而将它们为我们所用并从中得益，这是我们努力的目标。他们的努力会让农业更绿化，水道更清洁。感谢收听费思拉皮德斯发回的报道。