顯然，塑料袋的發(fā)明是為了拯救地球

顯然，塑料袋的發(fā)明是為了拯救地球

It comes as no surprise that plastic nowadays is seen as the planet’s number one enemy. Plastic is piling up at landfills, it has polluted rivers, seas and oceans and it has even infiltrated our bodies as well. However, no matter how counterintuitive it may sound, plastic bags were actually created to save the planet. That’s what the son of Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin who created them in 1959 says. Plastic bags were developed as an alternative to paper bags, whose production resulted in forests being chopped down. The new alternative proposed longer durability, which meant that they could be used over and over again – many more times than a paper bag could handle.

如今塑料被視為地球的頭號敵人，這并不奇怪。垃圾填埋場的塑料堆積如山，污染了河流、海洋，甚至滲透到我們的身體里。然而，無論聽起來多么違反直覺，塑料袋實際上是用來拯救地球的。這是瑞典工程師斯滕·古斯塔夫·圖林的兒子在1959年創(chuàng)造的。塑料袋作為紙袋的替代品被開發(fā)出來，紙袋的生產(chǎn)導(dǎo)致森林被砍伐。新的替代方案提出了更長的耐用性，這意味著它們可以反復(fù)使用——比一個紙袋能承受的次數(shù)多得多。

Originally, plastic bags were created to help save the planet

最初，塑料袋是用來拯救地球的

Image credits: dcaloren

However, we just became lazy. Instead of using and re-using the same bag over and over again, we got used to getting rid of them. Last year, National Geographic has reported that somewhere around 40 percent of plastic produced is packaging – which is used just once and then discarded. The son of the inventor of plastic bags told the media: “To my dad, the idea that people would simply throw these away would be bizarre. He always carried [a plastic bag] in his pocket folded up. You know what we’re all being encouraged to do today, which is to take your bags back to the shop, he was doing back in the ’70s and ’80s, just naturally, because, well, why wouldn’t you?”

然而，我們只是變得懶惰。我們不再一次又一次地使用同一個袋子，而是習(xí)慣了丟棄它們。去年，《國家地理》雜志報道稱，大約40%的塑料制品是包裝材料，只使用一次就被丟棄。這位塑料袋發(fā)明者的兒子在接受媒體采訪時說:“對我爸爸來說，人們會把塑料袋隨手扔掉的想法很奇怪。他總是把(一個塑料袋)放在折疊的口袋里。你知道我們今天都被鼓勵去做什么，那就是把你的袋子拿回商店，他在70年代和80年代就這么做了，很自然，因為，嗯，你為什么不這么做呢?”

Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin created them back in 1959

瑞典工程師Sten Gustaf Thulin早在1959年就創(chuàng)造了它們

Image credits: jericlcat

Plastic bags were patented by a company called Celloplast and by the middle of the 1960s, they were actively replacing paper and cloth alternatives in Europe. Fast forward to 1979, plastic bags already accounted for 80 percent of Europe’s bag market. At the beginning of the 1980s, two of the biggest US supermarket chains – Kroger and Safeway – switched to plastic bags. By the end of the 1980s, plastic bags replaced paper ones around the whole world.

塑料袋被一家名為Celloplast的公司申請了專利，到20世紀(jì)60年代中期，塑料袋在歐洲積極地取代了紙張和布料。到了1979年，塑料袋已經(jīng)占據(jù)了歐洲塑料袋市場的80%。上世紀(jì)80年代初，美國兩大連鎖超市——克羅格(Kroger)和西夫韋(Safeway)——改用塑料袋。到20世紀(jì)80年代末，全世界的塑料袋取代了紙袋。

They were supposed to be re-used numerous times, unfortunately, that isn’t the case

它們應(yīng)該被多次重復(fù)使用，不幸的是，事實并非如此

Image credits: Alan Denney

According to the same report by National Geographic, in 2018, shoppers in the United States used almost one plastic bag per resident per day, whereas shoppers in Denmark used an average of four plastic bags a year. Whereas according to the UN, plastic bags are now produced at a rate of one trillion a year! Therefore, many countries are now banning plastic bags, with Bangladesh being the first one having banned them back in 2002. Since then, more than two dozen countries have followed suit. However, one of the biggest problems is that the majority of plastic bags are not recycled and end up in landfills, where they take up to 1,000 years to degrade.

根據(jù)國家地理雜志的同一份報告，在2018年，美國的購物者平均每人每天使用一個塑料袋，而丹麥的購物者平均每年使用四個塑料袋。然而根據(jù)聯(lián)合國的數(shù)據(jù)，現(xiàn)在塑料袋的生產(chǎn)速度是每年一萬億!因此，許多國家現(xiàn)在都禁止使用塑料袋，孟加拉國是第一個在2002年禁止使用塑料袋的國家。從那時起，二十多個國家紛紛效仿。然而，最大的問題之一是，大多數(shù)塑料袋沒有被回收，最終被扔進(jìn)了垃圾填埋場，在那里它們需要1000年才能降解。

However, experts say that a plastic bag can be a greener alternative than a paper or cotton one

然而，專家表示，塑料袋可能是比紙或棉袋子更環(huán)保的選擇

Image credits: rakka

However, according to experts, alternatives to plastic bags are not necessarily more environmentally friendly. While opting for paper and cotton bags would technically reduce waste, they have other important environmental effects. UK Environment Agency suggests that a paper bag has to be used at least three times to be as “green” as a plastic bag that is being recycled. This is because producing paper bags requires more energy and water while they’re also heavier than plastic bags, which makes them more expensive to transport. As for cotton bags – they need to be used at least 131 times to be as environmentally friendly as plastic bags.

然而，據(jù)專家說，塑料袋的替代品不一定更環(huán)保。雖然紙袋子和棉袋子在技術(shù)上可以減少浪費(fèi)，但它們還有其他重要的環(huán)境影響。英國環(huán)境署建議，一個紙袋至少要用三次才能達(dá)到塑料袋的“綠色”程度。這是因為生產(chǎn)紙袋需要更多的能源和水，同時它們也比塑料袋重，這使得它們的運(yùn)輸成本更高。至于棉袋，它們需要至少使用131次才能達(dá)到塑料袋的環(huán)保效果。