Level 4 Reading 11B

Reading 11B

阅读11B

TECHNOLOGY AS TRASH As the sun heats the humid air in Accra—the capital city of Ghana— a terrible-smelling black smoke begins to rise above the Agbogbloshie Market. Past the vegetable merchants is a scrap market filled with piles of old and broken electronics waste. This waste—consisting of broken TVs, computers, and monitors—is known as "e-waste." Further beyond the scrap market are many small fires. Fueled by old cartires, they are burning away the plastic covering from valuable wire in the e-waste. People walk through the poisonous smoke with their arms full of brightly colored computer wire. Many of them are children. Israel Mensah, 20, explains how he makes his living here. Each day, scrap sellers bring loads of old electronics. Mensah's friends and family buy a few computers or TVs. They break them apart to remove valuable metals and wires, as well as any parts that can be resold. Then they burn the plastic covering off the wire and sell it. The key to making money is speed, not safety. "The gas goes to your nose, and you feel something in your head,"Mensah says as he knocks his fist against his head. "Then you get sick in your head and your chest." Broken computer and monitor cases are unwanted, and are thrown in a nearby lagoon. The next day, the rain will wash them into the ocean. The Problem of E-waste E-waste is being produced on a scale never seen before. Computers, cell phones, and other electronic equipment become obsolete in just a few years, leaving consumers with little choice but to buy newer ones to keep up. Each person in the world discards, on average, over six kilograms of e-waste every year. That's enough e-waste to fill 1.2 million trucks lined up from New York to Bangkok—and back again. Sadly, in most of the world, the bulk of all this waste ends up in landfills. There it poisons the environment; e-waste contains a variety of substances that are toxic, such as lead, mercury, and arsenic. Recycling is, in many ways, the ideal solution to the problem: E-waste contains significant amounts of valuable metals such as silver, gold, and copper. In theory, recycling gold from old computers is far more efficient— and less environmentally destructive—than digging it from the earth. The problem is that a large percentage of e-waste dropped off for recycling in wealthy countries is diverted to the developing world—to countries like Ghana. As the quantity of e-waste increases worldwide, it poses an increasing threat to the health of people living in the developing world. In 1989, 170 nations signed the Basel Convention to address the problem of the international trade in e-waste. The agreement required developed nations to notify developing nations of hazardous waste shipments coming into the country. Six years later, after pressure from environmental groups and developing nations, the Basel Convention was modified to ban hazardous waste shipments to poor countries completely. In the European Union—where recycling infrastructure is well developed— one law holds manufacturers responsible for the safe disposal of the electronics they produce. If e-waste continues to be shipped overseas, it may ultimately come back to harm the developed world. Jeffrey Weidenhamer, a chemist at Ashland University in Ohio, bought some jewelry made in a developing country for his class to analyze. It was distressing that the jewelry contained high amounts of lead, but not a great surprise, as jewelry with lead has turned up before in U.S. stores. More revealing were the quantities of metals such as copper and tin mixed in with the lead. Weidenhamer argued in a scientific paper that the proportions of these metals suggest that the jewelry was made from recycled computer parts. Since the developed world is sending large quantities of materials containing lead to developing nations, it's to be expected that those countries will make use of them in their manufacturing processes. "It's not at all surprising things are coming full circle and now we're getting contaminated products back," says Weidenhamer. In a global economy, it's no longer possible to get rid of something by sending it to other countries. As the old saying goes, "What goes around comes around." A Small Solution? There is hope, however, that more countries will transition to a "circular economy"— one that focuses on reusing materials and minimizing waste in the first place. An example is Australia, which has recently opened what has been called the world's first e-waste microfactory. The microfactory—which is only 50 square meters in size— includes several small machines that recycle e-waste. A machine first breaks down the discarded e-waste. A robot then identifies and separates the parts, which are heated and transformed into valuable materials that can be reused and repurposed. The process is clean, relatively inexpensive, and—if repeated—could help reduce the huge amount of e-waste that currently ends up in Australian landfills. Because of their small size, microfactories could significantly alter the way e-waste is handled and processed. This is true especially in remote locations where transporting and recycling e-waste is very expensive. Professor Veena Sahajwalla of the University of New South Wales says e-waste microfactories have the potential to tackle e-waste problems locally and provide business opportunities—a win-win for the environment and business. It also provides a model that could be picked up in other countries that currently send their e-waste overseas. Innovations such as e-waste microfactories, says Sahajwalla, "offer a cost-effective solution to one of the greatest environmental challenges of our age."

技术如同垃圾 阳光加热加纳首都阿克拉潮湿的空气-- Agbogbloshie市场上空开始冒出一股难闻的黑烟。 蔬菜商人身后是一个废品市场，里面堆满了废旧电子产品。 这种由破碎的电视、电脑和显示器组成的废物被称为“电子废物” 在废品市场之外，还有许多小火灾。 在旧推车的推动下，他们正在烧掉电子垃圾中贵重电线的塑料覆盖物。 人们手臂上挂满了色彩鲜艳的电脑线，穿过有毒的烟雾。 他们中的许多人都是孩子。 20岁的Israel Mensah解释了他是如何在这里谋生的。 每天，废品销售商都会带来大量旧电子产品。 门萨的朋友和家人买了几台电脑或电视。 他们将它们拆开，以去除有价值的金属和电线，以及任何可以转售的零件。 然后他们烧掉电线上的塑料覆盖物并卖掉。 赚钱的关键是速度，而不是安全。 “气体会进入你的鼻子，你会感觉到脑子里有什么东西，”门萨一边说，一边用拳头敲着自己的头。 “然后你的头部和胸部就会生病。” 损坏的电脑和显示器外壳是不需要的，会被扔进附近的泻湖。 第二天，雨水会把它们冲入大海。 电子垃圾问题 电子垃圾的产生规模是前所未有的。 电脑、手机和其他电子设备在短短几年内就过时了， 这让消费者别无选择，只能购买更新的产品来跟上。 世界上每个人平均每年丢弃超过6公斤的电子垃圾。 这足以装满从纽约到曼谷的120万辆卡车，然后再回来。 可悲的是，在世界大部分地区，这些废物的大部分最终都被填埋了。 在那里，它毒害了环境； 电子垃圾含有多种有毒物质，如铅、汞和砷。 在许多方面，回收是解决这一问题的理想方案： 电子垃圾含有大量有价值的金属，如银、金和铜。 理论上，从旧电脑中回收黄金的效率要高得多-- 而且对环境的破坏性比从地球上挖掘要小。 问题是，在富裕国家，有很大一部分电子垃圾被丢弃进行回收 被转移到发展中国家，比如加纳。 随着全球电子垃圾数量的增加， 它对发展中国家人民的健康构成了越来越大的威胁。 1989年，170个国家签署了《巴塞尔公约》，以解决电子废物国际贸易问题。 该协议要求发达国家将进入该国的危险废物运输通知发展中国家。 六年后，在环保组织和发展中国家的压力下， 《巴塞尔公约》被修改为完全禁止向贫穷国家运输危险废物。 在欧盟，回收基础设施发达-- 一项法律要求制造商对其生产的电子产品的安全处置负责。 如果电子垃圾继续运往海外，它最终可能会回来伤害发达国家。 俄亥俄州阿什兰大学的化学家Jeffrey Weidenhamer， 他买了一些发展中国家制造的珠宝，供全班同学分析。 令人痛心的是，这些珠宝含有大量的铅， 但这并不奇怪，因为含铅珠宝以前也出现在美国商店里。 更能说明问题的是铜和锡等金属与铅的混合量。 Weidenhamer在一篇科学论文中指出，这些金属的比例表明珠宝是由回收的电脑零件制成的。 由于发达国家向发展中国家发送了大量含铅材料， 预计这些国家将在其制造过程中使用它们。 Weidenhamer说：“事情正在完全循环，现在我们又得到了受污染的产品，这一点也不奇怪。”。 在全球经济中，再也不可能通过将某物发送到其他国家来摆脱它。 正如古语所说，“人所共知，事竟成。” 一个小的解决方案？ 然而，有希望更多的国家将向“循环经济”过渡-- 一个首先注重材料再利用和减少浪费的组织。 澳大利亚就是一个例子，该国最近开设了世界上第一家电子垃圾微型工厂。 这个微型工厂只有50平方米-- 包括几台回收电子垃圾的小型机器。 机器首先分解废弃的电子垃圾。 然后，机器人识别并分离零件， 它们被加热并转化为可以重复使用和重新利用的有价值的材料。 该方法清洁、相对便宜， 而且，如果重复使用，可能有助于减少目前最终进入澳大利亚垃圾填埋场的大量电子垃圾。 由于其体积小，微型工厂可以显著改变电子废物的处理和加工方式。 在运输和回收电子垃圾非常昂贵的偏远地区尤其如此。 新南威尔士大学的Veena Sahajwalla教授表示，电子垃圾微型工厂有潜力在当地解决电子垃圾问题 提供商业机会，实现环境和商业的双赢。 它还提供了一个模型，可以在目前将电子垃圾运往海外的其他国家借鉴。 萨哈瓦拉说，电子垃圾微型工厂等创新， “为我们这个时代最大的环境挑战之一提供了一种经济高效的解决方案。”

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