Turning chewing gum into useful objects 嚼過的口香糖“變廢為寶”

本集內容

學習要點

有關“recycling 回收利用”的詞匯

邊看邊答

What is most chewing gum made of?

文字稿

Chewing gum is the second most common litter on the streets after cigarettes.

口香糖是僅次於香煙，最常見的街頭垃圾。

Councils spend millions each year cleaning it up. But one designer based at the Design Museum in London has a plan to deal with the problem. It all began with an experiment taking random samples of street litter.

英國地方政府每年要花百萬英鎊來清理它們。但一位來自倫敦設計博物館的設計師想出瞭一個解決此問題的方法。這一切都是從她對街頭垃圾進行隨機取樣的試驗開始的。

Anna Bullus, Designer
“I could find pretty much programmes for recycling for a lot of the litters apart from a piece of chewing gum that I picked up.”

安娜·佈爾斯，設計師
“我能找到回收大部分垃圾的項目，但唯獨找不到處理我撿到的一塊口香糖的方式。”

Most chewing gum on our streets is in fact made of synthetic rubber. So chewing gum is potentially a versatile and useful material for lots of manufacturing processes.

出現在我們街頭的大多數口香糖都由合成橡膠制成。所以口香糖可能被變成一種用途廣泛的材料，用於制造加工的生產過程中。

But how do you capture it before it sticks to the ground? Well, that’s where the special bins come in. They are themselves made out of recycled chewing gum.

但你如何能在口香糖被粘在地上之前獲取它呢？這正是“特制垃圾桶”存在的意義瞭。這些用來裝嚼完的口香糖的垃圾桶就是由回收的口香糖制成的。

The University of Winchester is one of several institutions that have signed up to use the bins.

溫徹斯特大學是加入使用這種特制垃圾桶的幾所大學之一。

A lot of the gum is turned into these reusable hot drink cups. These are given out to first-year students to hammer home the message that recycled gum can be turned into something useful – if it’s not simply dropped on the floor.

回收的大部分口香糖被做成瞭可重復使用的熱飲杯。這些杯子被分發給讀大一的學生，從而使他們清楚地瞭解回收口香糖可以“變廢為寶”，隻要不把它們隨地亂扔掉。

In order to gain its new lease of life, the old gum is first taken to a recycling plant. Then it gets turned into the new objects.

為瞭使這些嚼過的口香糖“重獲新生”，它們先要被送去回收廠，接著被制成新的物品。

As well as the cups and bins, these include some eye-catching designs. But the main goal is to educate and clean up the environment.

包括制成的杯子和垃圾桶，這些“新生寶物”的設計非常引人註目。然而，此舉的主要目的是為瞭敦促人們文明地處理嚼完的口香糖，清理環境。

詞匯

litter
垃圾

versatile
用途廣泛的

to hammer home
解釋清楚

new lease of life
新生

eye-catching
搶眼的，引人註目的

你知道嗎？

A 5,000-year-old piece of chewing gum has been discovered by an archaeology student on a dig in western Finland. Neolithic people used the material as an antiseptic to treat gum infections, as well as a glue for repairing pots.

一塊有著五千年歷史的口香糖在芬蘭西部的一次挖掘中，被一名考古系的學生發現。生活在新石器時代的人們把這種材料作為治療牙齦感染的抗菌劑，以及作為修復各種盆盆罐罐的黏合劑。