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欧盟将禁止一次性塑料制品

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困难 2771

欧洲委员会近日起草了一份针对一次性塑料制品的禁令。

The European Commission is proposing a ban on around 10 single-use plastic items that it says account for approximately 70 percent of all garbage in the European Union's waters and beaches, including cutlery, straws, cotton buds, plates, some coffee cups, and stirrers.
欧洲委员会近日起草了一份针对一次性塑料制品的禁令，包括塑料刀叉、吸管、棉签、餐盘、部分咖啡杯、搅拌棒等，而这些塑料据称占据了欧盟水域和沙滩漂浮垃圾中的7成。

The legislation is not just about banning plastic products. It also wants to make plastic producers bear the cost of waste management and cleanup efforts, and it proposes that EU states must collect 90% of single-use plastic bottles by 2025 through new recycling programs.
这项法令不仅仅是简单的“禁塑”，它还要求塑料厂商承担起塑料废物处理和清理的相关责任，法令还提议欧盟国家在2025年前通过新的垃圾循环计划，对90%的一次性塑料瓶进行回收再利用。

The European Commission estimates that these rules, once fully implemented in 2030, could cost businesses over €3 billion per year. But they could also save consumers about €6.5 billion per year, create 30,000 jobs, and avoid €22 billion in environmental damage and cleanup costs. In all, the new legislation is beneficial for the economy in the long run.
欧委会预计这一系列新法规将在2030年全面执行，可能造成企业每年30亿欧元的亏损。但与此同时，新法规每年能为消费者节约65亿欧元的支出，创造3万多个就业机会，减少220亿欧元的环保支出。所以总的来说，这项新法规在经济层面上是利大于弊的。

Currently, the plastic reuse rate is frankly embarrassing compared to other products. While just 14 percent of all plastic used globally is collected for recycling, the rate for paper is 58 percent and the rate for iron and steel is around 90 percent. Scientists have concluded that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area of the ocean where huge amounts of discarded plastic items eventually end up, has now grown to at least 87,000 tons of marine wildlife-killing waste.
当前，塑料的再利用率比起其他材料要低得多。全世界只有14%的塑料得到了回收利用，而纸制品则达到了58%，钢铁的回收率更达到了90%。科学家目前得出结论，由洋流将海洋垃圾汇集在一起的“大太平洋垃圾带”，规模已经达到了惊人的8万7千吨以上，对海洋生物造成了严重的威胁。

The ban doesn't mean that consumers in the EU will suddenly be unable to get these items; instead, products like plastic forks and knives with "readily available alternatives" would be replaced with products made from more environmentally friendly materials like bioplastics.
这项禁令并不意味着欧盟的消费者会突然间买不到上述产品。相反，像塑料刀叉这种已经有“现成替代品”的产品将会被更多环境友好型的材料取代，例如可以轻松降解的生物塑料。

"Europeans need to act together to tackle this problem," EU vice president Frans Timmermans said. "Today's proposals will reduce single use plastics on our supermarket shelves through a range of measures. We will ban some of these items, and substitute them with cleaner alternatives so people can still use their favourite products."
欧盟委员会副主席Frans Timmermans说道，“欧洲需要携起手来共同应对塑料问题。今天的提议将通过一系列举措减少市场上流通的一次性塑料制品，我们在下达禁令的同时，也将用更加环保的材料进行替代，确保消费者能够继续使用他们喜爱的产品。”

Vocabulary

cutlery: n. 刀叉
stirrer: n. 搅拌器；搅拌棒
bioplastic: n. 生物塑料

字数：337个

易读度：困难

来源：外教社 2018-07-18

欧盟将禁止一次性塑料制品

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