好英语网白色污染：代替塑料的天然产品
Drinking straws and polythene bags may be bearing the brunt of the backlash, but the true scourge of single-use plastics is our sheer overreliance on them. From transport to manufacturing to food services, plastic is everywhere, and combatting this “white pollution” will require a sea change in the material itself.
在对塑料制品的强烈抵制中，吸管和塑料袋可能首当其冲，但一次性塑料的真正问题在于我们的过度依赖。从运输业到制造业再到食品服务业，塑料无处不在，要对抗这种“白色污染”，需要对材料本身进行彻底改变。
Fortunately, scientists, engineers and designers are shifting their focus to ecologically friendly alternatives that create circular, low-waste ecosystems – liquid wood, algae insulation, and polymer substitutes made from fermented plant starch such as corn or potatoes, for example.
好在科学家、工程师和设计师们正将注意力转移到生态友好型的替代品上——能创造可循环、低废物生态系统的材料，例如液态木材、藻类绝缘材料，以及由玉米或土豆等植物淀粉发酵后制成的聚合物替代品。
These alternatives do more than stem the growing tide of plastics: they also address issues such as safely housing a growing population, offsetting carbon emissions, and returning nutrients to the earth.
这些替代品不仅仅能阻止塑料的增长趋势，还能安全安置不断增长的人口、抵消碳排放，并将营养物质输送回土地。
Stone wool
岩棉
To transform one of the world’s most abundant resources into something with utility and sustainability takes a special kind of alchemy. Stone wool comes from natural igneous rock—the kind that forms after lava cools – and a steelmaking byproduct called slag; these substances are melted together and spun into fibres, a little like candyfloss.
要将世界上最丰富的资源之一转化为可利用且可持续的资源，需要点特殊魔法。岩棉来自岩浆冷却后形成的天然岩浆岩，另一种原料是炼钢的副产品熔渣。岩棉是将这两种物质熔合在一起纺成纤维，有点像棉花糖。
Unlike fibreglass insulation (made with recycled glass), or foamed plastic (the conductive materials often used to block heat transfer in attics, roofs and crawlspaces), stone wool can be engineered to boast unique properties, including fire resilience, acoustic and thermal capabilities, water repellancy and durability in extreme weather conditions.
与玻璃纤维绝缘体和泡沫塑料不同，岩棉可以被赋予独特的性能，包括耐火性、声学和热学性能、防水性以及在极端天气条件下的耐久性。玻璃纤维绝缘体由回收玻璃制成，而泡沫塑料是一种阻止热传递的导电材料，通常用于阁楼、屋顶和狭小的空间内。
Over the past few years, stone wool has gained traction with eco-conscious architects and designers as they search for more sustainable building materials that are still cost-effective and aesthetic. The Rockwool Group is a leading manufacturer of stone wool insulation, running production facilities in Europe, North America and Asia. The company has installed stone wool in commercial and industrial buildings across the globe, including London’s O2 Arena and the Hong Kong Airport.
过去几年，具有生态意识的建筑师和设计师在寻找兼具成本效益和美感且更加可持续的建筑材料，岩棉因此得到推崇。洛科威集团（Rockwool Group）是一家领先的岩棉隔热产品制造商，在欧洲、北美和亚洲都有工厂。该公司已经帮助全球多个商业和工业建筑安装岩棉，包括伦敦O2体育馆和香港机场。
As wildfires and floods increase in frequency and severity, Stone Wool may also give homeowners an extra measure of safety in natural disasters.
随着野火和洪水的频率及严重程度不断增加，岩棉也可能在自然灾害中为房屋主人提供额外的安全保护。
Mycotecture
菌丝体
Mushrooms aren’t just a flavour-packed addition to ravioli or ragu (or a sparkplug to the occasional psychedelic adventure); soon, tree-hugging fungi and forest-floor toadstools may replace materials like polystyrene, protective packaging, insulation, acoustic insulation, furniture, aquatic materials and even leather goods.
蘑菇不仅仅给意大利饺子和肉酱（或是偶尔为之的迷幻冒险）增添风味，不久以后，树上生长的真菌和森林地面上的伞菌可能会取代聚苯乙烯、保护包装、绝缘材料、隔音材料、家具、水性材料，甚至皮革制品。
MycoWorks, a team of creative engineers, designers and scientists, is working to extract the vegetative tissues of mushrooms and solidify them into new structures, curating fungi as one might other organic materials like rubber or cork. Another company, New York-based Evocative Design, uses mycelium as a bonding agent to hold together wood paneling, as well as for flame-retardant packaging.
MycoWorks是一个由有创意的工程师、设计师和科学家组成的团队，他们正致力于提取蘑菇的植物组织，并将其固化成新的结构，像处理橡胶或软木等有机材料一样来处理真菌。另一家位于纽约的公司唤情设计（Evocative Design）使用菌丝体作为黏合剂，用于粘合木板和阻燃包装。
Mushrooms consist of a network of filaments called hyphae. When growth conditions are suitable, fruiting bodies – the structures specialised for the production of spores – make an often sudden appearance; so-called mycelial products are thus easy to culture and germinate.
蘑菇由一种叫做菌丝的丝状物组成。当生长条件合适时，专门产生孢子结构的子实体通常会突然生成，所谓的菌丝体产物很容易培养和发芽。
Mycelium can be grown in almost any kind of agricultural waste (think sawdust or pistachio shells); mushrooms grow together within the material, which can be configured into any shape, forming natural polymers that adhere like the strongest glue. By baking the fungi at precise temperatures, they are rendered inert, thereby ensuring that the mushroom doesn’t suddenly sprout again in a rainstorm. While chanterelles, shiitaki and portobello may go better with pizza than mushroomy plaster, one thing is clear: the future is fungi.
菌丝体几乎可以生长在所有农业废弃物中（如锯末和开心果壳），蘑菇在这些媒介中生长，可以长成任何形状，形成天然聚合物，像最强力的胶水一样粘。在精确的温度下烘烤真菌，可以稳定它们的惰性，确保蘑菇不会如雨后春笋一般突然再次发芽。虽然鸡油菌、香菇和大褐菇可能比蘑菇酱更适合搭配披萨，但有一件事很明确：未来是真菌的。
Urine bricks
尿液砖
Cement, concrete’s primary ingredient, accounts for about 5% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. Researchers and engineers are working to develop less energy-intensive alternatives, including bricks made with leftover brewery grains, concrete modelled after ancient Roman breakwaters (Romans made concrete by mixing lime and volcanic rock to form mortar, a highly stable material), and bricks made of, well, urine.
水泥是混凝土的主要成分，所造成的二氧化碳排放量占全球的5%。研究人员和工程师们正在努力开发低耗能的替代材料，包括用啤酒厂剩余谷物制成的砖块、仿古罗马防波堤的混凝土材料（古罗马人将石灰和火山岩混合成一种高度稳定的材料——灰浆——用来制造混凝土），以及用，呃，尿液制成的砖。
As part of his thesis project, Edinburgh College of Art student Peter Trimble was working on an exhibit that was supposed to feature a module on sustainability. Almost by accident, he created “Biostone”: a mixture of sand (incidentally, one of Earth’s most abundant resources), nutrients, and urea – a chemical found in human urine.
爱丁堡艺术学院（Edinburgh College of Art）的学生特林布（Peter Trimble）在毕业论文项目中有一部分是以可持续性模块为主题设计展览。几乎是出于偶然，他创造了“生化石”：一种沙子 、营养素和尿素（一种人类尿液中的化学物质）的混合物。顺便说一句，沙子是地球上最丰富的资源之一。
Pumping bacterial solution into a sand-filled mould, Trimble devised hundreds of experiments over the course of a year until he tweaked the recipe. The microbes eventually metabolised the mixture of sand, urea, and calcium chloride, creating a glue that strongly bound the sand molecules together.
特林布将细菌溶液注入充满沙子的模具中，在一年里进行了数百次实验才找到了配方，令细菌能够分解沙子、尿素和氯化钙的混合物，形成一种胶水，将沙子分子牢固地粘在一起。
Trimble’s design offers an alternative to the energy-intensive methods with a low energy biological process of microbial manufacturing. Biostone produces no greenhouse gases and uses a widely available raw material. While Trimble's material would require reinforcement to be as strong as concrete, it could become a low-cost way of building temporary structures or street furniture.
特林布的设计利用了制造微生物这一低能耗的生物手段，可以用来替代高能耗的生产方式。生化石不产生温室气体，原材料非常普遍。虽然它还不能像混凝土一样坚固，但可以用来建造临时建筑和街道设施，成本较低。
At the very least, Biostone has spawned a discussion on ways in which industrial manufacturing can be made more sustainable, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries where sand is readily available.
至少，生化石已经引发了一场关于工业制造如何变得更具可持续性的讨论，特别是在撒哈拉以南的非洲等等有沙子的发展中国家。
These bio-bricks do have an environmental downside, however: the same bacterial metabolism that solidifies them work also turns the urea into ammonia, which can pollute groundwater if it escapes into the environment.
然而，这些生物砖也会对环境造成问题：令生物砖固化的细菌代谢过程也会将尿素转化为氨，如果泄漏到环境中，会污染地下水。
A greener particleboard
更环保的刨花板
Despite what it sounds like, particleboard – those rigid panels made of compressed and veneered wood chips and resin used in furniture and kitchen cabinetry throughout the world – hasn’t actually a place in the green-building pantheon. That’s because the glue that binds particleboard’s wood fibres traditionally contain formaldehyde, a colourless, flammable, strong-smelling chemical and known respiratory irritant and carcinogen. That means your faux-wood Ikea shelf is quietly “off-gassing” toxins into the air.
不管听起来像什么，刨花板（塑合板，蔗渣板）这种用木屑和树脂制成的压缩硬板在全世界的家具和橱柜中都广泛使用，但并不是一种绿色材料。粘合刨花板木纤维的胶水一般含有甲醛——一种无色、易燃、气味强烈的化学物质，已知会刺激呼吸道和致癌。这意味着你从宜家买的人造板架子正在悄悄地向空气中“释放”有毒物质。
One company, NU Green, created a material made from 100% pre-consumer recycled or recovered wood fibre called “Uniboard”. Uniboard saves trees and avoids landfill, while also generating far fewer greenhouse gases than traditional particleboard, and contains no toxins. That’s because Uniboard has pioneered the use of renewable fibers like corn stalks and hops, as well as no added formaldehyde (NAF) resin instead of glue.
绿色NU公司（NU Green）发明了一种名为“单板”（Uniboard）的材料，100%由回收的木质纤维制成。单板不仅节约树木，避免了垃圾填埋，所产生的温室气体也比传统刨花板少得多，而且不含有毒物质。这是因为单板率先使用了玉米秸秆和啤酒花等可再生纤维，而且使用了不添加甲醛的树脂来代替胶水。
It’s no secret that petroleum extraction, which is required to produce plastic, has devastating environmental consequences. Worse still is disposing of the plastic itself: the toxic chemicals contained in plastic often leach into foods, beverages and groundwater.
众所周知，生产塑料所需的石油开采会对环境造成毁灭性影响，对塑料的处理影响更严重：塑料中所含的有毒化学物质经常渗入食品、饮料和地下水。
Shockingly, recycling merely slows down the journey of plastics to landfills or oceans, where the material simply fragments into smaller and smaller bits that never completely biodegrade. Some reports predict that, by 2030, 111 million metric tons of plastic will wind up in landfills and oceans . Recycling is a step in the right direction, but to truly reverse course, we need to look toward plastic alternatives and renewable resources for a sustainable future.
令人震惊的是，回收仅仅减缓了塑料被运往垃圾堆填场或海洋的速度，塑料只是被分解得越来越小，但永远无法完全生物降解。一些报告预测，到2030年将有1.11亿公吨的塑料流入垃圾堆填场和海洋。回收是正确的一步，但要真正扭转趋势实现可持续的未来，我们需要寻找塑料的替代品和可再生资源。