Landfills What a Load of Garbage!

Landfills. What a load of garbage. Written by Torrin Anderson.

垃圾填埋场。 真是好多垃圾呀。 托林·安德森 著

Trash in the past. Thousands of years ago, people living in the ancient city of Troy in modern -day Turkey threw their garbage on their floors. When the floors grew filthy enough, the people would put another layer of earth on top to bury the garbage. The Trojans piled so many layers of trash on their floors, they had to raise the roofs of their houses. You may laugh, but what we do today isn't so different. Ancient or modern, people still have to figure out what to do with their trash.

过去的垃圾处理。 几千年前，位于如今土耳其境内的古城特洛伊的居民 习惯把垃圾扔在自家的地板上。 等地板脏得没法用了，人们就铺一层新土把垃圾埋掉。 特洛伊人堆了太多层垃圾，最后不得不把房屋的屋顶加高。 你可能觉得好笑，但我们现在的做法其实差别不大。 无论古代还是现代，人类都得解决垃圾该如何处理的问题。

Trash today. Today, most people do not throw garbage on the floors or in the middle of the street. Instead, we put it in trash cans, the garbage truck hauls it away, and we forget about it. But where exactly is away? When you put something in the garbage, It enters what is called the waste stream. The waste stream is the flow of garbage to its final location. Most of the garbage in the waste stream goes to landfills, areas of land set aside for burying trash.

现在的垃圾处理。 如今，大多数人不会把垃圾扔在地板或者大街上了。 我们会把垃圾放进垃圾桶，等垃圾车拉走就不再操心了。 可垃圾被拉走之后到底去了哪里呢？ 你扔掉的垃圾会进入所谓的“垃圾流”系统。 垃圾流就是垃圾从产生地运往最终处理地的过程。 大多数垃圾最终都会运到垃圾填埋场，也就是专门划出来埋垃圾的场地。

How much trash do we create? The world creates more than 2 .6 trillion pounds, 1 .2 trillion kilograms of trash each year. That's about what 182 great pyramids of Egypt would weigh. Americans make up only 5 % of the world's population, but create 25 % of the world's waste. The average American creates 4 .5 pounds, 2 kilograms of trash every Paper and paper products, such as cardboard packaging, make up a lot of what Americans toss.

我们一共会产生多少垃圾？ 全球每年产生的垃圾超过2.6万亿磅，也就是1.2万亿公斤。 这差不多等于182座埃及大金字塔的总重量。 美国人口仅占全球的5%，产生的垃圾却占全球总量的25%。 平均每个美国人每天产生4.5磅，也就是2公斤的垃圾，纸张和纸制品，比如硬纸板包装，占了美国人丢弃垃圾的很大一部分。

Follow the trash. A garbage truck carries our trash to a landfill. The truck unloads the trash into a cell, a storage space for garbage. Then, a heavy truck drives over the garbage with large, spiky wheels and smashes it down. At the end of the day, a bulldozer covers the trash with dirt so that it's less exposed to the elements. Burying the garbage also helps keep out wildlife and reduces the odor.

跟着垃圾走一趟。 垃圾车把我们的垃圾运去垃圾填埋场。 卡车把垃圾卸到填埋坑，这是专门存放垃圾的区域。 之后，重型卡车会开着带尖刺的大轮胎碾过垃圾，把它压实压碎。 一天结束后，推土机会用土把垃圾盖住，减少垃圾暴露在自然环境中。 埋住垃圾还能阻挡野生动物靠近，也能减少异味散发。

building a landfill. Landfills vary in size. Usually, a gigantic hole is dug about 200 feet, 61 meters wide, and up to half a mile, 805 meters deep. The garbage can't be dumped straight into the ground, though, because some of the garbage is toxic. As trash breaks down, its toxic parts mixed with rainwater to produce leachate. Leachate is the often toxic liquid that has drained or leached through the landfill. If you picture the landfill like a giant swimming pool, leachate is the liquid inside. If not collected and treated, the leachate will either drain through the bottom or overflow.

建造垃圾填埋场。 垃圾填埋场的大小各不相同。 通常人们会挖出一个巨型大坑，宽约200英尺，也就是61米，最深可达半英里，即805米。 不过垃圾不能直接倒进坑里，因为部分垃圾带有毒性。 垃圾分解时，有毒物质会和雨水混合，产生渗滤液。 渗滤液就是从填埋场里渗漏出来，通常带有毒性的液体。 如果你把填埋场想象成一个大游泳池，渗滤液就是池里的液体。 如果不收集处理，渗滤液要么会从坑底漏出去，要么就会溢出来。