托福阅读材料之Food to fuel plan in the works

新型环保发电方式

In the northwestern United States, the city of Seattle requires its residents to separate food waste from the rest of their trash. The food gets recycled into compost for lawns, gardens and, soon, into electricity.

美国西北地区的西雅图市要求居民把残羹剩饭等食品垃圾跟其他垃圾分开。食品垃圾回收发酵以后，用来给草坪和花园施肥，而且不久以后，还可以用来发电。

Every day, at Cedar Grove Composting north of Seattle, truck after truck pulls into this huge warehouse to dump loads of food and yard waste.

在西雅图北面的杉木林积肥场，每天都有卡车一辆接着一辆开进这个巨大的仓库，倾卸满载的食物垃圾和庭院废弃物。

"There's a nice mix of green waste and material. We actually have different seasons here in the tipping building," says Susan Thoman, business development director for Cedar Grove. "There's pumpkin season, that's the first of November after Halloween. We have Christmas tree season, which is obviously the first part of January after the holidays."

杉木林积肥场的业务发展部主任苏珊.托曼说：“绿色废物和材料很好的混合在一起。实际上在这个垃圾场有不同的季节。有南瓜季节，那是万圣节后的11月1号。有圣诞树季节，明摆着那是节日之后的1月上旬。”

According to Thoman, food waste and yard waste are currently all dumped in a pile together. Then they're mixed with microbes, ground up, and poured in long, covered rows to biodegrade for a month.

托曼说，现在食品垃圾和庭院废弃物都堆放在一起。然后，这些废物里搀进微生物，碾碎，再注入一个长形的有盖子的池子里沤上一个月。

The people who work at Cedar Grove talk about compost the way chefs talk about food. Thoman digs her hands into a rich, dark pile of the finished product.

在杉木林积肥场工作的人谈论起积肥来就像厨师谈论菜肴一样。托曼把手伸进一堆沤好的肥润乌黑的产品当中。

"This is what it's all about, though, here. This is what those wonderful things we divert from the landfill turn into."

她说：“这才是它全部的意义所在。这是我们变废为宝搞出来的东西。”

Alternative energy

Now Cedar Grove has a new recipe in mind for its food waste. Before turning banana peels and bread crusts into compost, the company wants to use them to create alternative energy.

目前，杉木林积肥场正在考虑一个新的处理食物垃圾的方案。在把香蕉皮和面包屑放进积肥堆之前，公司要用它们来创造替代能源。

Food waste would be separated and sprinkled with bacteria to help the food begin to break down. Then it would be poured into a closed container called an anaerobic digester, where the decomposing food would start releasing large amounts of methane.

处理过程是这样的：先把食物垃圾分离出来，添加细菌，帮助食物垃圾分解。然后，注入一个叫作真空消化器的封闭容器，分解的食物垃圾在这里面开始释放大量的沼气。

Instead of letting that methane escape into the atmosphere, where it could contribute to global warming, Cedar Grove would suck it up and store it. Then they could burn it, to power and heat the compost facility.

如果这些沼气进入大气层，将会加剧全球变暖现象。杉木林积肥场将把这些沼气收集储存起来。然后，他们可以把沼气当成燃料，给积肥场供电供暖。

Lawrence Klein, technology and development planner for Cedar Grove, says they could also convert the gas from the food waste to compressed natural gas, to fuel their trucks.

劳伦斯.克莱恩是杉木林积肥场的技术和发展规划师。他说，他们也可以把食物垃圾产生的沼气转换成压缩天然气，给他们的卡车当燃料。

"I mean, it's a beautiful image," says Klein. "It's taking a waste product and then driving down the highway with it. I'm excited about it."

“我是说，这是个美丽的前景。利用废物制成产品，然后用它来驾驶汽车跑在公路上。我为此而激动。”