A rubbish map 垃圾分布地图

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A rubbish map
垃圾分布地图

Jun 7th 2012, 15:51 by The Economist online

A global comparison of garbage
全球垃圾比较

NOTHING evokes environmental degradation and poverty quite so vividly as pictures of slum-dwelling children scavenging through mounds of steaming waste for items to sell. Such sights are often a direct consequence of economic success and rapid urbanisation, and so could become increasingly common as the rate of urbanisation in many poor countries increases. Nearly all rubbish is generated by city-dwellers, and in a new report on municipal solid waste (MSW), the World Bank warns of the potential costs of dealing with an ever-growing deluge of garbage. The world's cities currently generate around 1.3 billion tonnes of MSW a year, or 1.2kg per city-dweller per day, nearly half of which comes from OECD countries. That is predicted to rise to 2.2 billion tonnes by 2025, or 1.4kg per person. The Bank estimates China's urbanites will throw away 1.4 billion tonnes in 2025, up from 520m tonnes today. By contrast, America's urban rubbish pile will increase from 620m tonnes to 700m tonnes.

居住在贫民窟的孩童在冒着蒸汽的垃圾中搜寻可卖之物，没有什么比这画面更生动地唤起人们对环境恶化和贫困的关注了。这种场景通常是经济成果和快速城市化直接导致的后果，所以随着许多贫穷国家城市化率的上升会愈发常见。几乎所有的垃圾是由城市居民制造的，世界银行在一份关于城市固体垃圾的报告中警告处理不断增多的垃圾泛滥带来的潜在代价。目前，世界上的城市每年制造约13亿吨城市固体垃圾，平均每个市民每天制造1.2公斤，其中近半来自经合组织国家。据预测到2015年，固体垃圾数量将会增至22亿吨，平均每人1.4公斤。世界银行估计，在2025年，中国城市居民会制造14亿吨垃圾，目前的这一数字是5.2亿吨。相比之下，美国的垃圾堆将从6.2亿吨增至7亿吨。