徹底禁用塑料真的好？

An outright ban on plastics could cause even more harm to the environment and lead to triple the amount of greenhouse gas emissions

完全禁止使用塑料可能對環(huán)境造成更大的危害，導(dǎo)致溫室氣體排放量增加兩倍。

That’s the finding of experts from Herriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, who say that replacing plastic with alternate materials such as metal and glass won’t help the environment.

這是愛丁堡赫里奧特-瓦特大學(xué)專家的發(fā)現(xiàn)。他們說，用金屬和玻璃等替代材料取代塑料對環(huán)境沒有幫助。

The team say this is because the manufacturing of these replacements could double global energy consumption.

這個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)稱，這是因?yàn)橹圃爝@些替代品可能使全球能源消耗翻番。

Resources required to process these replacement materials would lead to more energy consumption and more greenhouse gas.

加工這些替代材料所需的資源將產(chǎn)生更多的能源消耗和溫室氣體。

Campaigners have called for reductions or bans, with recent programmes such as the BBC’s Blue Planet highlighting the impact of plastics on the world’s oceans.

活動(dòng)人士呼吁減少或禁止使用塑料，最近BBC的《藍(lán)色星球》(Blue Planet)等節(jié)目中也強(qiáng)調(diào)了塑料對世界海洋的影響。

But the team of forty academics said arguments surrounding a reduction or ban are ’often shortsighted and not based on facts’.

但這個(gè)由40名學(xué)者組成的研究小組說，減少或禁止使用塑料的觀點(diǎn)“往往缺乏遠(yuǎn)見，也缺乏事實(shí)依據(jù)”。

The waste products produced when making metal and glass are all bad for the environment.

制造金屬和玻璃時(shí)產(chǎn)生的廢品都對環(huán)境有害。

The major environmental impact of glass and metal production is caused by atmospheric emissions from melting activities.

玻璃和金屬生產(chǎn)對環(huán)境的主要影響是由熔化過程中產(chǎn)生的大氣排放造成的。

The combustion of natural gas/fuel oil and the decomposition of raw materials during the melting lead to the emission of CO2.

熔化過程中天然氣/燃料油的燃燒和原料的分解會(huì)排放二氧化碳。

Professor David Bucknall, who led the research, said that transportation of consumer goods in plastic packaging means fewer vehicles because plastic is lightweight.

領(lǐng)導(dǎo)這項(xiàng)研究的大衛(wèi)·巴克納爾教授說，塑料包裝的消費(fèi)品運(yùn)輸意味著需要更少的車輛，因?yàn)樗芰虾茌p。

The academics draw expertise from engineering, science, economics and social science, said there needs to be a ’circular economy’ for plastic usage.

這些學(xué)者從工程、科學(xué)、經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)和社會(huì)科學(xué)中汲取了專業(yè)知識(shí)，他們提出，塑料的使用需要“循環(huán)經(jīng)濟(jì)”。

Almost everything we touch or interact with on a daily basis is made of or contains a plastic of some description,’ said Professor David Bucknall, chairman in materials chemistry from the university’s Institute of Chemical Sciences.

該大學(xué)化學(xué)科學(xué)研究所材料化學(xué)系主任巴克納爾教授說，我們每天接觸的幾乎所有東西都是由某種塑料制成的，或含有某種塑料。

Banning or reducing their use would have a massive impact on the way we live.

“禁止或減少使用它們將對我們的生活方式產(chǎn)生巨大影響。”