【经济学人】洁净纯白的污染丨2017.03.23丨总第854期

LITTERING in graveyards is generally frowned upon. But at the edge of Kangemi, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, a patch of land that used to be a final resting place for humans now serves as a rubbish dump. A few mangy goats roam around, picking out scraps of food. Men, too, scrabble around. “This is where we find our daily bread,” says George Kimani, who collects aluminium cans and plastic bottles and sells them to recyclers. But one thing is not of use, he says: plastic bags. Left behind by goats and men alike, they form a carpet of green, blue and white on the ochre earth.

在墓地乱扔垃圾通常会引起反感。但是在肯尼亚首都内罗毕的一个名为Kangemi的贫民窟的边缘地区，一片曾经的长眠之所现在变成了垃圾场。脏兮兮的几只山羊在周围晃悠找零星的吃的，人也一样，四处翻检垃圾。在垃圾堆里拾铝罐和塑料瓶然后卖给回收站的乔治·基马尼说这里是他们每天的口粮来源。但他还说有一样是没用的——塑料袋。人和山羊都不要的塑料袋在这片赭红色的土地上铺成绿色、蓝色和白色的一片。

Since their invention in the 1960s, disposable plastic bags have made lives easier for lazy shoppers the world over. But once used, they become a blight. This is particularly true in poor countries without good systems for disposing of them. (读者试译句）They are not only unsightly. Filled with rainwater, they are a boon for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Dumped in the ocean, they kill fish. They may take hundreds of years to degrade. On March 15th Kenya announced that it will become the second country in Africa to ban them. It follows Rwanda, a country with a dictatorial obsession with cleanliness, which outlawed them in 2008.

（期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟）垃圾袋不仅仅是有碍观瞻：它们在盛满雨水之后会成为携带疟疾的蚊子的温床；被倾卸在海洋里的话，垃圾袋还会杀死鱼类；并且它们要花上几百年才能自然分解。3月15日，肯尼亚宣布其将成为非洲第二个禁止塑料袋的国家。它之前是卢旺达，这个对卫生清洁有着专断式的追求的国家在2008年宣布塑料袋不合法。

• Dictatorial 独裁的 专断的

The ban was hailed by the United Nations Environment Programme as a breakthrough. “Our oceans are being turned into rubbish dumps,” says Erik Solheim, the head of the agency. As Kenyans get richer and move to cities, the amount of plastic they use is growing. By one estimate, Kenya gets through 24m bags a month, or two per person. (Americans, by comparison, use roughly three per person.) Between 2010 and 2014 annual plastic production in Kenya expanded by a third, to 400,000 tonnes. Bags made up a large part of the growth.

这个禁令被联合国环境规划署视为重大突破，推崇备至。艾丽奇·索尔海姆作为规划署署长讲道：“我们的海洋正在变成垃圾场。”当肯尼亚人变得富有并搬到城市之后，他们所使用的塑料袋数量也逐步上升。据估计，肯尼亚一个月可以消耗掉2400万个袋子，平均一人消耗两个。（相比较而言，美国大约每人消耗三只袋子。）从2010年到2014年，肯尼亚塑料年产量增加了三分之一，达到了40万吨，其中塑料袋的增长占了很大一部分。

• Hail：v.致敬，招呼

Kenya has tried to ban polythene bags twice before, in 2007 and 2011, without much success. This latest measure is broader, but few are ready for it. The Kenyan Association of Manufacturers says it will cost thousands of jobs. Some worry that supermarkets will simply switch to paper bags, which could add to deforestation. And then there is the question of whether Kenyan consumers will accept it. In Rwanda, since its ban was imposed, a thriving underground industry has emerged smuggling the bags from neighbouring Congo. Packing in the plastic may be harder than it seems.

在2007年和2011年，肯尼亚曾经两度禁止聚乙烯袋子的使用，但是并没有取得明显成效。这项新措施涉及广泛，但是人们大多没有准备好。肯尼亚制造协会称这会减少上千个就业岗位。有人担心超市仅仅会换用纸袋，这样会导致森林砍伐现象加重，还有人考虑到肯尼亚的消费者是否会接受。在卢旺达，自从禁令实行以来，从邻国刚果走私袋子的地下产业繁荣起来。终止塑料袋似乎并没有看起来那样简单。

• Polythene：n.聚乙烯   

• Broader：adj.广大的   

• Deforestation：n.砍伐森林

• Thriving：adj.繁荣的，昌盛的   

• Smuggling：v.走私

翻译 ▍bibobibo，下罗小柜员，陌上

审核 ▍白夜叉

编辑 ▍小小鱼