世界首臺海洋塑料清理機將啓用 嘗試處理太平洋垃圾帶碎片

Scientists are preparing to launch the world's first machine to clean up the planet's largest mass of ocean plastic.

科學家們正準備率先使用機器清理地球上最大海洋塑料垃圾堆。

The system, originally dreamed up by a teenager, will be shipped out this summer to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, between Hawaii and California, and which contains an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic.

該清理系統源自一名青少年的構想，將在今年夏天被運往“大太平洋垃圾帶”。大太平洋垃圾帶位於美國夏威夷和加利福尼亞之間，總共有大約1.8萬億片塑料。

It will be the first ever attempt to tackle the patch since it was discovered in 1997.

這將是自1997年發現該垃圾帶以來首次嘗試對它進行處理。

The experts believe the machine should be able to collect half of the detritus in the patch – about 40,000 metric tons – within five years.

專家們認爲，這種機器應該能在5年內收集垃圾帶中一半的碎片，總重量約4萬噸。

In the past few weeks they have been busy welding together giant tubes that will sit on the surface of the sea and form the skeleton of the machine, creating the largest floating barrier ever made.

在過去幾周裏，他們一直在忙着將巨大的管子焊接在一起。這些管子將被放置在海面上，構成機器的主體，也成爲有史以來人類製造的最大的漂浮屏障。

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) spans 617,763 sq miles - more than twice the size of France, and contains at least 79,000 tons of plastic, research found last month.

上月的一項調查發現，大太平洋垃圾帶的面積達到61萬7763平方英里（約合160萬平方公里），是法國面積的兩倍多，其中含有至少7.9萬噸塑料。

Most of it is made up of “ghost gear” – parts of abandoned and lost fishing gear, such as nets and ropes – often from illegal fishing vessels.

塑料主要由“幽靈漁具”構成，包括廢棄或丟失的漁網、繩索等漁具的組件，而這些漁具大都來自非法捕魚船隻。

Nearly half the debris collected from the Great Pacific garbage patch consisted of discarded fishing nets (The Ocean Cleanup Foundation)

Ghost gear kills more than 100,000 whales, dolphins and seals each year, according to scientific surveys. Seabirds and other marine life are increasingly being found dead with stomachs full of small pieces of plastic.

科學調查顯示，幽靈漁具每年導致超過10萬頭鯨、海豚和海豹死亡。越來越多的海鳥和其他海洋生物被發現死亡時胃裏裝滿了小塊塑料。

More than 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into our oceans every year, according to the US-based Plastic Oceans Foundation.

總部位於美國的塑料海洋基金會表示，每年有超過800萬噸塑料被傾倒入海洋。

Up to 90 percent of the world’s plastic items are never recycled, and scientists believe nearly every piece ever created is still in existence somewhere, in some form, with most going into landfill or the environment. Single-use plastic, such as water bottles and nappies, take 450 years to break down.

世界上有多達90%的塑料製品從來沒有被回收利用，而科學家認爲幾乎每一片製造出來的塑料都以某種形式存在於某個地方，其中大部分進入到垃圾填埋場或環境中。水瓶和尿片等一次性塑料製品需要450年才能夠降解。

The system to tackle the largest swirling mass of rubbish in the Pacific has been designed by a non-profit technology firm called The Ocean Cleanup, set up by Dutch inventor Boyan Slat when he was an 18-year-old aerospace engineering student.

用於處理太平洋上最大垃圾帶的系統是由一家名爲“海洋清理”的非營利性技術公司設計的，該公司由荷蘭發明家博揚•斯萊特創建，當時他還是一名18歲的航空航天工程系學生。

“What I really hope is that the ocean clean-up in this century can be a symbol for us using technology to make things better.”

斯萊特說：“我真正希望的是，本世紀的海洋清理能夠成爲我們利用技術使世界變得更加美好的標誌。”

The clean-up contraption consists of 40ft pipes – ironically made of plastic – that will be fitted together to form a long, snaking tube.

這套清理裝置由40英尺（約合12米）長的管子組成——具有諷刺意味的是這些管子也是塑料的，它們將被連在一起，形成一個蛇形的長管。

Filled with air, they will float on the ocean's surface in an arc, and have nylon screens hanging down below forming a giant floating dustpan to catch the plastic rubbish that gathers together when moved by the currents. The screens, however, will be unable to trap microplastics – tiny fragments.

充滿空氣的管子將呈弧形漂浮在海面上，下面懸掛的尼龍篩網將形成一個巨大的漂浮簸箕，捕獲隨着水流移動而聚集在一起的塑料垃圾。不過，這些篩網無法捕獲塑料微粒——極其微小的碎片。

Fish will be able to escape the screens by swimming underneath them.

魚能夠從篩網下面遊過，不會被它們捕獲。

The Ocean Cleanup team aim to launch the beginnings of the system from the shores of San Francisco Bay within weeks, start it working by July and then keep extending it.

“海洋清理”公司團隊計劃在幾周之內從舊金山灣區的海岸開始投放這種系統，在7月底之間開始啓用，然後不斷擴大作業面積。

They plan to have 60 giant floating scoops, each stretching a mile from end to end. Boats will go out to collect debris every six to eight weeks.

他們計劃放置60個巨大的漂浮簸箕，每一個簸箕的跨度爲1英里（約合1.6公里），然後每隔6到8週會派出船隻去收集捕獲的塑料碎片。

Mr Slat was 16 and still at school when he was diving in Greece and first saw for himself the amount of plastic polluting the sea.

16歲的斯萊特還在上學時曾經去希臘潛水，第一次親眼看到了污染大海的塑料垃圾的數量。

“There were more bags than fish down there,” he recalls. Two years later he came up with a solution, quit university after six months and set up The Ocean Cleanup as a company.

他回憶道：“那裏的塑料袋比下面的魚還要多。”兩年後，他想出了一個解決方案，並在上大學6個月後退學，創建了“海洋清理”公司。

Following a crowdfunding campaign that raised £1.57m and later investment bringing the total to £28.56m, the company now has 65 paid staff, including researchers and engineers.

該公司經過衆籌活動籌集到157萬英鎊（約合1383萬元人民幣），後來得到的投資使得籌資總額達到2856萬英鎊（約合2.5億元人民幣），現在公司擁有65名員工，其中包括研究人員和工程師。

Mr Slat, 23, says the first plastic to arrive on shore will be a major milestone.

現年23歲的斯萊特說，第一塊被送到岸上的塑料將成爲一個重要的里程碑。

“We as a humanity created this problem, so I think it's our responsibility also to help solve it,” he said.

他說：“作爲人類，我們製造了這個問題，所以我認爲我們也有責任幫助解決這個問題。”

He told US business website Fast Company: “Most of the plastic is still large, which means that in the next few decades if we don’t get it out, the amount of microplastics can be tenfold or 100-fold.”

斯萊特對美國快公司商業網站說：“大多數塑料垃圾仍然很大，這意味着如果我們在未來幾十年裏不把它們清理出來，塑料微粒的數量就可能達到現在的10倍到100倍。”