亂吐口香糖粘鞋底？or回收利用造鞋底！
British designer Anna Bullus is on a mission to recycle chewing gum into useful objects, cleaning up our streets in the process.
英國設計師安娜.布勒斯面臨一個任務，就是要將嚼過的口香糖回收利用做成有用的東西，同時在這個過程中清理我們的街道。
More than ￡14bn is spent on chewing gum around the world each year, but a lot of that gum will end up stuck to the ground.
每年有多達140億英鎊花在了全世界的口香糖上，但它們當中很多最後都會粘在地上。
Gum is the second most common type of street litter after cigarette materials.
除了香煙的材料之外，口香糖是街頭垃圾中第二常見的類型。
In the UK, councils spend around ￡50m each year cleaning up the mess.
在英國，國會每年會花大概五千萬英鎊用於清理這些臟物。
But Anna had an idea.
然而，安娜想出一個主意。
What if the sticky stuff could actually be recycled and turned into useful objects?
如果這些黏黏的東西其實可以回收利用，做成有用的東西呢？
Around 10 years ago, she began a project looking at kerbside litter.
大約十年前，她開始了一項關於馬路邊的垃圾的研究項目。
She examined random samples, looking at things like crisp packets and cigarette butts.
她研究了一些隨機樣本，查看了一些比如薯片包裝袋和煙蒂之類的東西。
She then tried to figure out which elements could be recycled.
然後她試圖搞清楚哪些元素可以被回收。
"One of the litters I found was a piece of chewing gum and as a designer I was completely amazed there was nothing actually being done to recycle it," she said.
「我發現的垃圾中有一個就是一塊口香糖，作為一名設計師我感到很震驚居然它沒有被回收利用，」她說。
Researching the chemistry of chewing gum, she discovered that its main ingredient, the gum base, is commonly a synthetic rubber, a type of polymer similar to plastic.
"It"s called polyisobutylene," explains Anna, "the same stuff you find in the inner tube of bicycle wheels."
「它叫做聚異丁烯，」安娜解釋道，「跟我們在自行車輪子的內膽的組成物質是一樣的。」
It is obtained from petrochemicals, which are refined from fossil fuels like crude oil.
它是從石油化工中得到的，是從像原油這樣的化式燃料中提煉出來的。
She realised that chewing gum, even once it has been finished with, is a versatile and potentially useful material.
她認識到口香糖，就算嚼過了，也是一種萬能的很有潛力的有用材料。
But how do you persuade people to donate their gum - instead of carelessly tossing it on to the street?
但如何讓人們捐獻出他們的口香糖—而不是隨手亂丟在街上呢？
As part of her strategy, Anna created bright pink, bubble-shaped bins specially for disposing of gum called Gumdrop, which can be hung at head-height.
作為計劃的一部分，安娜設計出了一種亮粉色，氣球形狀的垃圾桶專門用來回收嚼過的口香糖塊，這種垃圾桶可以掛在大約齊平頭部的高度。
These bins are themselves made of recycled chewing gum.
這些垃圾桶它們本身也是用嚼過的口香糖回收製作的。
A message next to the bins explains that any gum collected will be recycled into new objects.
旁邊還有一則告示說明收集起來的口香糖會被回收利用製成新的物品。
But would gum-chewers use them?
不過，那些嚼口香糖的人真的會用這種垃圾桶嗎？
The University of Winchester was one of the first places to sign up to use the bins.
英國的溫徹斯特大學是第一批登記使用這種垃圾箱的地方。
Around 8,000 people live and work on its campus and the authorities wanted to keep it clean of gum litter.
校園裡大概有8000多人生活和工作，校方希望保持校園清潔。
It adopted a twin-pronged strategy to tackle the problem.
它採用了一個並行的措施來攻克難題。
It installed 11 of Anna"s special bins and to reinforce the message that gum can be recycled if disposed of responsibly, it gave out hundreds of coffee cups made of recycled gum to first-year students.
它安裝了11個安娜的特殊垃圾桶，為了強化口香糖合理丟棄就可以回收的信息，還免費給新生派發了幾百個用回收的口香糖製成的咖啡杯。
"Students would give the cup a sniff to check it didn"t smell of mint or bubble gum," recalls Liz Harris, the university"s environmental officer.
「學生們往往會聞聞杯子看有沒有薄荷或者口香糖的味道」，利茲.海瑞斯回憶道，她是大學的環保辦公室老師。
"It"s because so much of the chewing gum sold on the high street is a polymer [so it] can be used to make new products.
「因為大街上賣的口香糖都是多聚物，所以它可以被回收來做成新產品。」
"When people get it, it"s a really nice moment."
「當人們聽懂的時候，真的感覺很欣慰。」
Eighteen months later, the university noticed a drop in gum litter and is expanding the scheme.
十八個月過後，這所大學注意到口香糖垃圾減少了，於是便進一步推廣這個項目。
The mixture containing the old chewing gum is put into an injection moulding machine.
含有廢舊口香糖的混合物被放入噴射塑模機器裡面。
It is heated and then ejected as a paste, which can be moulded into new objects as it cools.
它被加熱然後像膠一樣噴出，然後冷卻後被塑造成新的物品。
"When you are h
andling the finished product, you do take a while to adjust to the fact that this has been in somebody"s mouth previously.
「當你拿到成品後，你會需要一段時間來調整適應一下，因為這個東西曾經出現在某人的嘴裡。」
"But once you get over that fear it"s easy. By recycling it and giving it another lease of life it"s helping the environment, it"s an absolutely fantastic idea."
「但克服了恐懼之後就很簡單了。通過回收利用，讓它變成日常用品可以改善環境，這真是一個很不錯的主意！」
感謝關注
跟amber一起看世界
TAG:跟amber一起看世界 |